Allende, Isabel

Isabel's father, Thomas Allende, is a diplomat and cousin of Salvador Allende , who became President of Chile in 1970 and was killed during a military coup led by Augusto Pinochet . Isabel admits that although she rarely saw her uncle, only on weekends, she respects him very much. Only after his death did she realize what a legendary and heroic personality Salvador Allende was. Isabel's mother is Francisca Lona, doña Panchita, the daughter of Agustin, Lona Cuevas and Isabel Barros Moreira.

In 1945, Isabel's parents divorced, and Isabel's mother returned to Chile with three children. Isabel spent her childhood with the rest of the children in her grandfather's house. In 1953, when Isabel was eleven years old, her mother married a second time to diplomat Ramon Widobro. The diplomat’s family moved a lot. Together with her family, Isabel first lived in the capital of Bolivia, La Paz , and from 1956 to 1958, in Beirut . The family returned from Beirut to Santiago de Chile , where Isabel graduated from high school and met her first husband, civil engineer Miguel Frias. They got married in 1962 .

From 1959 to 1965, Isabel made a successful career as a TV journalist at the UN Food and Agriculture Information Service. On television, she broadcast a weekly broadcast about the UN hunger program.

In 1963, Isabel and Miguel had a daughter, Paula. The Isabel family traveled extensively throughout Europe and for some time lived in Brussels and Geneva . In 1966, Isabel returned with her family to Chile. Here she had a son, Nicholas.

Isabel Allende quickly became a very sought-after journalist and women's rights specialist. She founded the newspaper Paula, which was the only print organ of Chilean feminists . The newspaper also published articles on the left-wing government of People’s Unity , led by her uncle Salvador Allende. She also led a humorous column in Impertinence, published a children's newspaper, Mampato , in Santiago, and wrote articles for the magazine Maga Cine Ellas . She worked on the Seventh and Thirteenth channels of Chilean television as a host of various popular television programs, including “ Conversation with Isabel Allende ”, and also interviewed, prepared reports and television discussion programs.

In 1973, her play "Ambassador" was staged in Santiago. In 1975, Isabel ended up in exile in Venezuela . There she worked in the Caracas newspaper El Nacional and taught at the school.

In 1981 , learning that her 99-year-old grandfather was dying, Isabel began writing him a letter, from which her first novel, House of Spirits , grew. The novel immediately received worldwide recognition. On its basis, the Danish director Bille August made the film “ House of Spirits ” with the participation of Jeremy Irons , Meryl Streep , Winona Ryder , Glenn Close and Antonio Banderas .

In 1988, in California, Isabel Allende met her current husband, Willie Gordon. From this time she lives in San Rafael . In 2003, she received American citizenship. In the Paula novel, published in 1994 , Isabel Allende recalls his childhood in Santiago and his years of exile. She wrote it in the form of letters to her daughter, who was in a coma and died in 1992 from porphyria .

By the mid-1980s, Isabel Allende was given the title of the most famous Latin American writer thanks to her novels “ House of Spirits ”, “ Love and Darkness ” and “ Eva Moon ”. As a writer, Allende is distinguished by the ability to express in his works the features of culture, the history of his homeland and the suffering of his people. Her works contain elements of Latin American magical realism , therefore, the unofficial title of “ Gabriel Garcia Marquez in a skirt” was entrenched to her. In the writer's work, the history of her family and her own biography play a huge role.

A recognized novelist, Isabel Allende is involved in journalism, writes theater plays and teaches literature at several universities. In journalism, she prefers issues of women's emancipation and gender equality and has gained fame as the author of critical social and feminist journalistic materials. For many years, it was the mouthpiece of all Chileans who were silenced by the Pinochet regime. ^{[ style ]}

For Russian readers, Isabel Allende's work has become a source of knowledge about the Latin American continent, its history, culture and politics. I. Allende is a laureate of numerous literary prizes.

Novels by I. Allende

• 1982 - The House of Spirits ( La casa de los espíritus )
• 1984 - Porcelain Fat Woman ( La gorda de porcelana )
• 1984 - Love and Darkness ( De amor y de sombra )
• 1987 - “Eva Luna” ( Eva Luna )
• 1989 - The Stories of the Eva Luna ( Cuentos de Eva Luna )
• 1991 - The Endless Plan ( El plan infínito )
• 1994 - Paula
• 1997 - "Aphrodite" ( Afrodita. Cuentos, recetas y otros afrodisiacos )
• 1998 - “Daughter of Fortune” ( Hija de la fortuna )
• 2000 - Portrait in Brown Tones ( Retrato en sepia )
• 2002 - The City of Besties ( La ciudad de las bestias )
• 2003 - “My Invented Country” ( Mi país inventado )
• 2003 - The Kingdom of the Golden Dragons ( El reino del dragón de oro )
• 2004 - The Pygmy Forest ( El bosque de los pigmeos )
• 2005 - Zorro
• 2006 - Ines of My Soul ( Inés del alma mía )
• 2007 - “The Sum of Days” ( La suma de los días )
• 2009 - “An Island Under the Sea” ( La isla bajo el mar ) ^{[2] [3]}
• 2011 - The Mayan Diary ( El cuaderno de Maya )
• 2014 - Ripper Game ( El juego de Ripper )
• 2015 - The Japanese Lover ( El amante japonés )
• 2017 - “Beyond the Winter” ( Más allá del invierno )

•   Wikimedia Commons has media related to Isabel Allende
• Books by Isabel Allende in the Librusek online library