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Daughter of Fortune
by Isabel Allende
Announced on February 17, 2000
About the Author
It was fifteen years ago that, Isabel Allende took the literary world
by storm with the publication of The House of the Spirits,
a novel which chronicled four generations of a Chilean family against
the backdrop of Chile's brutal history. The Times of London
heralded Allende as having "the rare ability to blend fantasy and
legend with political fact and a well-plotted narrative to produce
an enchanted world unlike anything else in contemporary fiction."
The New York Times called the book "a unique achievement,
both personal witness and possible allegory of the past, present
and future of Latin America."
Allende followed
her impressive debut with Of Love and Shadows, Eva Luna,
The Stories of Eva Luna, and The Infinite Plan, all
bestsellers around the world. Critical accolades have greeted the
publication of each of Allende's books, which have commonly been
cited for their compassion, imagination, humor and originality.
The House of the Spirits was made into a feature film with
an all-star cast headed by Jeremy Irons, Meryl Streep, and Glenn
Close. Of Love and Shadows, starring Antonio Banderas, was
released a year later.
Isabel Allende was born in Lima, Peru, in 1942 and raised in Chile,
Bolivia, Europe, and the Middle East, as her peripatetic family
followed her stepfather's diplomatic career. She worked as a journalist
in Chile until the 1973 military coup. Allende fled her homeland,
settling in Venezuela with her husband, son and daughter. "I felt,
as many Chileans did, that my life had been cut into pieces, and
that I had to start over again," she recalls.
Isolated from her family, and in particular from her beloved grandfather
who was close to death, Allende began to write a long letter in
which she reassured him that the would always be kept alive in her
memories. That letter grew into The House of the Spirits.
PAULA, Allende's first non-fiction book is a deeply moving
memoir inspired by the tragic fatal illness of her 28 year-old daughter.
It, too, began as a letter from mother to daughter that becomes
a meditation on a mother's life and a daughter's death. It became
an international bestseller when it was published three years ago.
Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses which celebrates
the pleasures of the sensual life through food, stories, and personal
anecdotes, was published in April 1998. Daughter of Fortune
was published October 10, 1999.
Isabel Allende now lives in the San Francisco area with her American
husband and their respective extended families.
Learn more about Daughter of Fortune
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