Isabel Allende is a Chilean-American writer known for novels that sometimes draw on magical realism. Her best-known works include The House of the Spirits (1982) and City of the Beasts (2002), which were commercially successful. Her novels often draw on her personal experience and historical events, and they focus on the lives of women. She was granted United States citizenship in 1993 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014.
Early life and exile
Allende was born in Lima, Peru, in 1942, and her family moved often during her childhood because of her stepfather's diplomatic postings. After the 1973 coup that overthrew Salvador Allende, a relative of her father, she fled to Venezuela, where she stayed for 13 years. She has said that leaving Chile made her a serious writer, freeing her from the expectations placed on her as a woman in a patriarchal family.
Writing career
Before becoming a novelist, Allende worked as a journalist, editor and television producer in Chile and Venezuela. She began The House of the Spirits as a letter to her dying grandfather, and it became her debut novel. Her memoir Paula, written as a letter to her daughter, describes her childhood and years in exile, and her novels have been translated into more than 42 languages.