Isabel Allende

With humor and love, the books of this Chilean author have gone far beyond Chile’s borders, translated into many languages.

Isabel Allende was born August 2, 1942 in Lima, while her father, Tomás Allende, was a diplomatic officer of the Chilean Embassy. At the age of three, Isabel came to Chile. She was destined to be a traveler, spending her childhood in Bolivia and Beirut. She went to high school in Chile, but it was only to be a brief stop. In the 1960s, she lived in Belgium and Switzerland.

Beginning in 1967, thanks to her work as a journalist for the Paula magazine , her gifts as a writer became well known, especially her talent for humorous prose, which she displayed in her columns, “Civilize Your Caveman” and “The Impertinent Ones.” In 1973 she was the editor of the “Mampato” children’s magazine, but her feminism and the fact that she was related to President Allende, who was her father’s cousin, made her choose self-exile in Venezuela, where she lived for 13 years.

In 1982 she published her novel, “The House of the Spirits,” which became a worldwide bestseller. Since then success has accompanied her other works, among them “Of Love and Shadow,” “Eva Luna,” “Paula” and “Portrait in Sepia.” The latest title to come out of her prolific production is “The Island Under the Sea,” published in 2009.

Her books have been translated for the entire world, they have received important prizes and some have been brought to the screen, such as “The House of the Spirits.” These prizes have made Isabel Allende the best-known Chilean author on the planet. She currently resides in California, in the United States.