Best-selling author Isabel Allende: Book by Book
Seira Wilson | July 2, 2024
I’m a long-time fan of Isabel Allende and while she’s written for a younger audience before, Perla the Mighty Dog is her first picture book and it’s as warm and sweet as I’d imagined (also available in Spanish!). One of our Best Books of June for Ages 3-5, this story about bullies and bonds is particularly heart-warming for those of us with a Perla of our own. Allende is the author of over 27 books, and has sold over 77 million copies. To say she is much loved is an understatement. We asked Allende to share some insights about her favorite characters, her inspirations, and more—her answers make me want to go back and read all of the books again…
The House of the Spirits is my best-known book, in print for 40 years. It’s a family saga in an unnamed Latin American country. The main character is Esteban Trueba, the patriarch, who was inspired by my grandfather, but three generations of women are the true protagonists. It’s a story of relationships, love, power, dictatorship, violence, and redemption told in the style of magical realism. —Isabel Allende
A long historical novel that follows the life of Zarité, a mixed race enslaved person in a sugar plantation in Haiti. When enslaved people revolted in 1971, Zarite’s master takes her and his family to New Orleans, where she eventually finds freedom. It took four years of research to put this story together because those were very complicated times and slavery is such a hard topic to deal with that I almost gave up. I am glad I persevered because Zarité es one of my favorite characters. —Isabel Allende
The story of Victor Dalmau starts at the end of the civil war in Spain in 1939, where he is a young paramedic. Escaping from the fascists he ends up as a refugee in Chile. He marries Roser, a young widow with a baby, so that she can emigrate with him. They are able to make a life together in Chile until 1973 when a military coup forces them into exile again. This is a story of love, war, displacement and survival, inspired by a friend of mine, Victor Pey, who died six days before I could send him the manuscript dedicated to him. He was 103 years old, active, and lucid. —Isabel Allende
The narrator, Violeta, was born in 1920 and died in 2020. The inspiration for the novel was my own mother, who also lived a very long life. Violeta witnessed a fascinating century and lived an unusual life for a woman of her time in Latin America. She was able to work from a very young age, she was independent and strong, but she had a romantic heart and fell in love with the wrong men. Like in most of my books, history, politics, social issues, love and death are the main ingredients. —Isabel Allende
Through my foundation, which works with refugees, I heard the story of a little girl that was separated from her mother at the border. She was blind. I imagined her terror, confusion, and grief, she was alone in an unknown place where she didn't even speak the language and shuffled around in the bureaucracy of immigration. It was easy to connect her plight to the trauma of millions of kids that have been separated from their families worldwide and still are. —Isabel Allende
I have a little rescue female doggy called Perla. She is smart, brave and funny. She has two superpowers: #1 she can make anybody love her and #2 she can roar like a lion. My book is about her, so I didn't have to stress my imagination. And the illustrations by Sandy Rodriguez are absolutely charming. Her rendition of Perla is almost as cute as my real Perla. —Isabel Allende
Author photo credit: Lori Barra
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