Isabel Allende

Allende was born in Lima, Peru, in 1942, the daughter of Francisca Llona Barros called "Doña Panchita" (the daughter of Agustín Llona Cuevas and Isabel Barros Moreira, of Portuguese descent) and Tomás Allende, who was at the time a second secretary at the Chilean embassy. Her father Tomás was a first cousin of Salvador Allende, President of Chile from 1970 to 1973."Review: The undefeated: A life in writing. Often compared to Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende is more interested in telling stories about her own life, her difficult upbringing, marriage, and her daughter's death.'"Aida Edemariam. The Guardian (London) p. 11. 28 April 2007 [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/apr/28/isabelallende.fiction Isabel Allende website]Christian, Shirley (5 June 1990), "Santiago Journal; Allende's Widow Meditates Anew on a Day in '73", The New York Times. Section A; p. 4, Column 3; Foreign Atlas.Ross, Veronica (3 March 2007), Sewing didn't cut it for Inés, Guelph Mercury (Ontario, Canada). Books; p. C5.

In 1945, after Tomás left them, Isabel's mother relocated with her three children to Santiago, Chile, where they lived until 1953.{{Cite news|last=Ojito|first=Mirta|author-link=Mirta Ojito|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/28/books/a-writer-s-heartbeats-answer-two-calls.html|title=A Writer's Heartbeats Answer Two Calls|date=28 July 2003|work=The New York Times|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}. The article notes that Allende has been told that her father left them and that due to Chile's anti-divorce laws, Allende's mother could not divorce Tomás. Her mother, 83 when the article was published, and her stepfather, 87 at the time, have lived together for 57 years, but they are still not recognized in Chile as married.{{cite web |url=http://www.isabelallende.com/roots_timeline_001.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=13 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101213022500/http://isabelallende.com/roots_timeline_001.htm |title=Isabel Allende |website=Isabelallende.com |access-date=11 November 2017 |quote=1962 Isabel marries Miguel Frías.}} In 1953 Allende's mother married Ramón Huidobro and the family moved often. Huidobro was a diplomat appointed to Bolivia and Beirut. In La Paz, Bolivia, Allende attended an American private school; and in Beirut, Lebanon, she attended an English private school. The family returned to Chile in 1958, where Allende was also briefly home-schooled. In her youth, she read widely, particularly the works of William Shakespeare.{{Cite book|oclc=793578915|title=Living with Shakespeare : essays by writers, actors, and directors|last=Carson|first= Susannah|year=2013|isbn=978-0-307-74291-9|location=New York}}

In 1970, Salvador Allende appointed Huidobro as ambassador to Argentina.

Before writing books, Allende worked with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Santiago, then in Brussels, and elsewhere in Europe from 1959 to 1965. For a short time in Chile, she also had a job translating romance novels from English to Spanish.{{cite book |last=Cox |first=Karen Castellucci |year=2003 |url=http://www.questiaschool.com/read/111670240?title=Isabel%20Allende%3A%20%20A%20Critical%20Companion |title=Isabel Allende: A Critical Companion |publisher=Greenwood Press |pages=2–4 }}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} However, she was fired for making unauthorized changes to the dialogue of the heroines to make them sound more intelligent, as well as altering the Cinderella ending to allow the heroines to find more independence and do good in the world.{{Cite news|last=Alter|first=Alexandra|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704448304575196020575568424 |title=Isabel Allende on Superstition and Memory |date=25 May 2010 |work=The Wall Street Journal|access-date=23 April 2010|page=W4|language=en-US|issn=0099-9660|quote=... she often changed the dialogue and endings to make the heroines seem smarter.}}

In 1973, Salvador Allende was overthrown in a coup led by General Augusto Pinochet.{{Cite book|last1=Puchner|first1=Martin|title=The Norton anthology of world literature|last2=Akbari|first2=Suzanne Conklin|last3=Denecke|first3=Wiebke|last4=Fuchs|first4=Barbara|last5=Levine|first5=Caroline|last6=Lewis|first6=Pericles|last7=Wilson|first7=Emily R|isbn=978-0-393-60281-4|language=en|oclc=1019855443|year=2018|location=New York|pages=1133–1141}} Isabel found herself arranging safe passage for people on the "wanted lists", which she continued to do until her mother and stepfather narrowly escaped assassination. When she herself was added to the list and began receiving death threats, she fled to Venezuela, where she stayed for 13 years.{{Cite news|last=Ojito|first=Mirta|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/28/books/a-writer-s-heartbeats-answer-two-calls.html|title=A Writer's Heartbeats Answer Two Calls|date=28 July 2003|work=The New York Times|quote=The only relative on her father's side with whom Ms. Allende had remained close was Salvador Allende, the country's democratically-elected Socialist president, who died in the military coup of Sept. 11, 1973 led by Augusto Pinochet. Two years later Ms. Allende – by then a wife, the mother of two children and a journalist – fled to Venezuela.}} It was during this time that Allende wrote her debut novel The House of the Spirits (1982). Allende has stated that her move from Chile made her a serious writer: "I don't think I would be a writer if I had stayed in Chile. I would be trapped in the chores, in the family, in the person that people expected me to be." Allende believed that, being female in a patriarchal family, she was not expected to be a "liberated" person. Her history of oppression and liberation is thematically found in much of her fiction, where women contest the ideals of patriarchal leaders.{{Cite journal|last=Dulfano|first=Isabel|date=October 2013|title=A Response to Isabel Allende's Tanner Humanities Center Human Values Speech|journal=Women's Studies|volume=42|issue=7|pages=816–826|doi=10.1080/00497878.2013.820615|s2cid=145191631|issn=0049-7878}} In Venezuela she was a columnist for El Nacional, a major national newspaper.{{cite web |last=Correa Guatarasma |first=Andrés|url=http://www.eluniversal.com/internacional/140415/isabel-allende-mis-mejores-amigos-son-venezolanos|language=es|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140425123141/https://www.eluniversal.com/internacional/140415/isabel-allende-mis-mejores-amigos-son-venezolanos|date=15 April 2014|archive-date=25 April 2014|title=Isabel Allende: "mis mejores amigos son venezolanos"|trans-title=Isabel Allende: "my best friends are Venezuelans"|location=Caracas|publisher=Eluniversal.com|access-date=11 November 2017}}{{Verse translation|lang=es|¿Cómo resume su vida de exilio en Caracas?
Los chilenos nos beneficiamos de Venezuela como miles de miles de otros de Argentina, Uruguay. En ese momento Venezuela era el segundo país más rico del mundo. Era un país generoso, abierto. Por eso siento mucho dolor con lo que está pasando. Tengo muchos amigos allí, mi hijo se casó con una venezolana, mis nietos nacieron en Venezuela, mi hermano con toda su familia vive en Venezuela. Mis mejores amigos son de Venezuela.|How do you summarize your life in exile in Caracas?
We Chileans benefit from Venezuela like thousands of thousands of others from Argentina, Uruguay. At that time Venezuela was the second richest country in the world. It was a generous, open country. So I feel a lot of pain with what is happening. I have many friends there, my son married a Venezuelan, my grandchildren were born in Venezuela, my brother lives in Venezuela with his whole family. My best friends are from Venezuela.}}

File:Girl Power at TED conference 2007 by jurvetson.jpg in California, flanked (L to R) by June Cohen, Lakshmi Pratury and Tracy Chapman]]

Beginning in 1967, Allende was on the editorial staff of Paula magazine and the children's magazine Mampato from 1969 to 1974, where she later became the editor.{{Cite news|first=Maya|last=Jaggi|author-link=Maya Jaggi|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/feb/05/isabelallende.fiction|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140508221632/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/feb/05/isabelallende.fiction|url-status=live|archive-date=8 May 2014|title=Life at a glance: A view from the bridge|date=5 February 2000|work=The Guardian Saturday Pages|location=London|page=6|access-date=25 March 2020|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077|quote=Employment: Journalist, Paula Magazine, Santiago, 1967-74; Mampato Magazine 1969-74; Channel 7 humorous programmes 1970–74; freelance, El Nacional, Caracas 1976–83. Administrator, Marrocco School, Caracas. 1979–83.}} She published two children's stories, "La Abuela Panchita" and "Lauchas y Lauchones", as well as a collection of articles, Civilice a Su Troglodita. She also worked in Chilean television production for channels 7 and 13 from 1970 to 1974. As a journalist, she once sought an interview with poet Pablo Neruda. Neruda agreed to the interview, and he told her that she had too much imagination to be a journalist and should be a novelist instead. He also advised her to compile her satirical columns in book form.{{r|alter2010|p=W4|quote=... interviewed Pablo Neruda, the poet told her that she'd make a better novelist than a reporter. "I think he saw that I was a liar. As a journalist I could not be objective. I would make up stories ... At the time I was hurt because he said I was the worst journalist.}} She did so, and this became her first published book. In 1973, Allende's play El Embajador played in Santiago a few months before she was forced to flee the country due to the coup.

During her time in Venezuela, Allende was a freelance journalist for El Nacional in Caracas from 1976 to 1983 and an administrator of the Marrocco School in Caracas from 1979 to 1983.

In 1977, while in Caracas, Allende received a phone call informing her that her 99-year-old grandfather was near death, and she sat down to write him a letter, hoping to thereby "keep him alive, at least in spirit." The letter evolved into a book, The House of the Spirits (1982); this work intended to exorcise the ghosts of the Pinochet dictatorship. The book was rejected by numerous Latin American publishers, but eventually published in Barcelona. The book soon ran to more than two dozen editions in Spanish and was translated into a score of languages. Allende was compared to Gabriel García Márquez as an author in the style known as magical realism.{{Cite book|last=Levine|first=Linda Gould|title=Isabel Allende|date=2002|publisher=Twayne Publishers|isbn=978-0-8057-1689-4|location=New York|language=en|oclc=48754834|pages=114–133}}

Although Allende is often cited as a practitioner of magical realism, her works also display elements of post-Boom literature. Allende also holds to a very strict writing routine.LATIN AMERICA'S SCHEHERAZADE; Drawing on dreams, myths, and memories, Chilean novelist Isabel Allende weaves fantastical tales in which reality and the absurd intersect. Fernando González. The Boston Globe Magazine; p. 14. 25 April 1993. She writes on a computer, working Monday to Saturday, 09:00 to 19:00. "I always start on 8 January", Allende stated, "a tradition she began in 1981 with the letter she wrote to her dying grandfather that would become The House of the Spirits." Allende, heroine 'Ines' are kindred spirits. Javier Erik Olvera. Inside Bay Area (California). Bay Area Living; Home and Garden. 25 November 2006.

Allende's book Paula (1995) is a memoir of her childhood in Santiago and the years she spent in exile. It is written as an anguished letter to her daughter. In 1991 an error in Paula's medication resulted in severe brain damage, leaving her in a persistent vegetative state.{{cite magazine |last=Hornblower|first=Margot|author-link=Margot Roosevelt|date=10 July 1995 |title=Grief and Rebirth |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,983156,00.html |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140722021357/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,983156,00.html|archive-date=22 July 2014|url-status=live|magazine=Time |volume=146 |issue=2 |page=65 |access-date=2 November 2017 }} Allende spent months at Paula's bedside before learning that a hospital mishap had caused the brain damage. Allende had Paula moved to a hospital in California where she died on 6 December 1992.

Allende's novels have been translated into more than 42 languages and sold more than 77 million copies.{{Cite news|url=https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/this-old-house-opened-a-lot-of-doors-for-isabel-allende/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325040607/https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/this-old-house-opened-a-lot-of-doors-for-isabel-allende/|archive-date=25 March 2020|title=This old "House" opened a lot of doors for Isabel Allende |department=Theater preview |first=Misha|last=Berson|page=H44 |date=1 June 2007|journal=The Seattle Times|publisher=The Seattle Times Company|language=en-US|access-date=25 March 2020|quote='I wrote that book exactly 25 years ago. It’s now the 25th anniversary of the book in Spanish. It opened the door for all my other books'". That is Isabel Allende talking about her breakthrough 1982 novel, "The House of the Spirits". The panoramic work chronicles the historical, mystical and the psychological forces in the life of a South American clan. And a play based on the international best-seller debuts next week [8 June 2007] in Seattle.}} Her 2008 book, The Sum of Our Days, is a memoir. It focuses on her life with her family, which includes her grown son, Nicolás; second husband, William Gordon; and several grandchildren. A novel set in New Orleans, Island Beneath the Sea, was published in 2010. In 2011 came El cuaderno de Maya (Maya's Notebook), in which the setting alternates between Berkeley, California, and Chiloé in Chile, as well as Las Vegas, Nevada.

Latino Leaders Magazine called her a "literary legend" in a 2007 article naming her the third most influential Latino leader in the world.

Her work has drawn some negative criticism. In an article published in Entre paréntesis, Roberto Bolaño called Allende's literature anemic, comparing it to "a person on his deathbed", and later called her "a writing machine, not a writer".{{Cite book|last=Bolaño|first=Roberto|author-link=Roberto Bolaño|title=Entre paréntesis : ensayos, artículos y discursos (1998-2003)|date=2004|publisher=Editorial Anagrama|others=Echevarría, Ignacio.|isbn=84-339-6210-8|location=Barcelona|oclc=57244781|page=102}}Bolaño, Roberto. Entre paréntesis, page 102: {{Verse translation|lang=es-cl|Es decir la literatura de Allende es mala, pero está viva, es anémica, como muchos latinoamericanos, pero está viva. No va a vivir mucho tiempo, como muchos enfermos, pero ahora está viva.|In other words, Allende's literature is bad, but it is alive, it is anemic, like many Latin Americans, but it is alive. She will not live long, like many sick people, but she is alive now.}} Literary critic Harold Bloom said that Allende only "reflects a determinate period, and that afterwards everybody will have forgotten her".[http://www.clarin.com/diario/2003/02/09/s-04003.htm Los éxitos y las críticas] Clarín. 9 February 2003
{{Verse translation|lang=es-cl|Isabel Allende es una muy mala escritora y sólo refleja un período determinado. Después todos se olvidarán de ella. (Harold Bloom)|Isabel Allende is a very bad writer and only reflects a certain period. Then everyone will forget about her.}}
{{Verse translation|lang=es-cl|Me parece una mala escritora, simple y llanamente, y llamarla escritora es darle cancha. Ni siquiera creo que Isabel Allende sea una escritora, es una escribidora. (Roberto Bolaño)|She seems to me to be a bad writer, plain and simple, and to call her a writer is to give her court. I don't even think Isabel Allende is a writer, she is a hack.}}{{Cite book|title=Isabel Allende|series=Bloom's Modern Critical Views|date=2003|publisher=Chelsea House Publishers|author-link=Harold Bloom|last=Bloom|first=Harold.|isbn=0-7910-7039-5|location=Philadelphia|oclc=49991424}} Novelist Gonzalo Contreras said that "she commits a grave error, to confuse commercial success with literary quality".[http://www.icarito.cl/medio/articulo/0,0,3255_5700_39755205,00.html Isabel Allende critica duramente a escritores chilenos y desata polémica], La Tercera. 9 February 2003
{{Verse translation|lang=es-cl|Ella incurre en un gravísimo error, confundir éxito de ventas con calidad literaria. (Gonzalo Contreras)|She makes a huge mistake, mistaking bestseller for literary quality.}}

Allende told El Clarín that she recognizes she has not always received good reviews in Chile, stating that Chilean intellectuals "detest" her. However, she disagrees with these assessments:

{{blockquote|text=The fact people think that when you sell a lot of books you are not a serious writer is a great insult to the readership. I get a little angry when people try to say such a thing. There was a review of my last book in one American paper by a professor of Latin American studies and he attacked me personally for the sole reason that I sold a lot of books. That is unforgivable.{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/jul/13/familyandrelationships.healthandwellbeing1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928140702/http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/jul/13/familyandrelationships.healthandwellbeing1|archive-date=28 September 2013|url-status=live|title= This much I know: Isabel Allende, writer, 65, San Francisco | first =Lawrence | last = Donegan |newspaper= The Guardian|access-date= 24 November 2014|date= 12 July 2008 }}}}

It has been said that "Allende's impact on Latin American and world literature cannot be overestimated." The Los Angeles Times called Allende "a genius", and she has received many international awards, including the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, granted to writers "who have contributed to the beauty of the world".

File:Isabel Allende 2017-09-08.jpg, 8 September 2017.]]

In 2006, she was one of the eight flag bearers at the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.{{cite AV media|url=https://www.ted.com/talks/isabel_allende_tales_of_passion|title=TEDtalks: Isabel Allende Tells Tales of Passion|first=Isabel|last= Allende|date=March 2007|access-date=24 November 2014|quote=In the last 20 years I have published a few books, but I have lived in anonymity until February of 2006, when I carried the Olympic flag in the Winter Olympics in Italy. That made me a celebrity. Now people recognize me in Macy's, and my grandchildren think that I'm cool. (Laughter)|minutes=1|publisher=TED Conferences LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design)}} She presented the talk Tales of Passion at TED 2007. In 2008, Allende received the honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters from San Francisco State University for her "distinguished contributions as a literary artist and humanitarian."{{Cite web|url=https://www.sfsu.edu/~news/2008/spring/comm08.html#allende|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080703214326/http://www.sfsu.edu/~news/2008/spring/comm08.html#allende|archive-date=3 July 2008|date=27 May 2008|title=SF State celebrates 107th Commencement: Transcript " SF State News – San Francisco State University – Conferral of the Honorary Degree on Isabel Allende|publisher=San Francisco State University|access-date=25 March 2020}} In 1994, she was awarded the Gabriela Mistral Order of Merit, the first woman to receive this honor. In 2014, Allende received the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from Harvard University for her contributions to literature.

Although not as openly political as some of her contemporary writers, she expressed contempt for Donald Trump and his policies following his election in 2016,{{Cite web|url=https://www.democracynow.org/2017/11/7/acclaimed_chilean_writer_isabel_allende_on|title = Acclaimed Chilean Writer Isabel Allende on Death of Pablo Neruda, the 1973 Chilean Coup & Trump, New Novel, "In the Midst of Winter" Examines Immigrant Lives & Love| website=Democracy Now! |date=7 November 2017|access-date=28 June 2023}} and she later endorsed Democrat Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential election.{{Cite web|url=https://www.instagram.com/p/CG2t2NYA2yn/|title = Las elecciones son en una semana el 3 de noviembre, así es que si puedes votar, VOTA!}} She has also regularly defended the record of her father's cousin, Salvador Allende.

Allende started the Isabel Allende Foundation on 9 December 1996, in honor of her daughter, Paula Frías Allende, who fell into a coma after complications of the disease porphyria led to her hospitalization.{{Cite web|url=http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/etext/llilas/tpla/9901.html|date=1999|title=Texas Papers on Latin America {{!}} After Paula: An Interview with Isabel Allende|access-date=25 March 2020|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060901071703/http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/etext/llilas/tpla/9901.html|archive-date=1 September 2006|first=John|last=Rodden|publisher=Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Texas at Austin|id=Paper No. 99-01}} Paula was 29 years old when she died in 1992.{{cite web|url=http://www.isabelallendefoundation.org/iaf.php|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141119032624/http://isabelallende.org/iaf.php|date=2014|archive-date=19 November 2014|url-status=live|title=Our Story {{!}} Isabel Allende Foundation|access-date=24 November 2014|publisher=The Isabel Allende Foundation|quote=During her short life, Paula worked as a volunteer in poor communities in Venezuela and Spain, offering her time, her dedication and skills as an educator and psychologist. She cared deeply for others. When in doubt, her motto was: What is the most generous thing to do? My foundation, based on her ideals of service and compassion, was created to continue her work.}} The foundation is "dedicated to supporting programs that promote and preserve the fundamental rights of women and children to be empowered and protected."The list 101 top leaders of the Latino community in the U.S; Cover story. Allen, Kerri; Miller, Corina; Socorro, Dalia; Stewart, Graeme. Latino Leaders p. 24(27) Vol. 8, No. 4 {{ISSN|1529-3998}}. 1 June 2007.

Allende had finished her secondary studies while living in Chile, when she met engineering student Miguel Frías whom she married in 1962. They had two children, a son and a daughter. Reportedly, "Allende married early, into an Anglophile family and a kind of double life: at home she was the obedient wife and mother of two; in public she became, after a spell translating Barbara Cartland, a moderately well-known TV personality, a dramatist and a journalist on a feminist magazine."Allende's and Frías's daughter Paula was born in 1963; she died in 1992 age 29. In 1966, Allende again returned to Chile, where her son Nicolás was born that year.{{cite web |url=http://isabelallende.com/en/timeline |title=Isabel Allende Timeline |year=2022 |access-date=11 January 2022 |quote=Note years 1962, 1966, 1992 in timeline }} In 1978, she began a temporary separation from Frías. She lived in Spain for two months, then returned to her marriage.{{cite web|url=http://www.isabelallende.com/roots_timeline_002.htm|title=Isabel Allende |website=Isabelallende.com|access-date=11 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101213024941/http://isabelallende.com/roots_timeline_002.htm|archive-date=13 December 2010|url-status=dead|quote=1978 Temporary separation from Miguel Frías. [Isabel Allende] lives in Spain for two months, then returned to her marriage.}} She divorced Frías in 1987.

During a visit to California on a book tour in 1988, Allende met her second husband, California attorney and novelist William C. "Willie" Gordon. They married in July 1988.{{Cite web|url=http://isabelallende.com/en/timeline#1988|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171210230318/http://www.isabelallende.com/en/timeline#1988|archive-date=10 December 2017|url-status=live|title=Isabel Allende Timeline|website=isabelallende.com|access-date=17 July 2019|quote= Isabel marries Willie Gordon on 17 July 1988 in San Francisco. They live in nearby San Rafael.}} She separated from Gordon in April 2015.{{Cite news|url = https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/isabel-allende-the-japanese-fiction-comes-from-the-womb-not-the-brain-book-review-a6733596.html|url-status=live|archive-date=19 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151119020943/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/isabel-allende-the-japanese-fiction-comes-from-the-womb-not-the-brain-book-review-a6733596.html|title = Isabel Allende, The Japanese Lover: 'Fiction comes from the womb, not the brain' – book review|last = Walker|first = Tim|date = 15 November 2015|work = The Independent|access-date = 16 January 2016|quote=The Japanese Lover was written before Allende and Gordon separated in April [2015], after 27 years. As she completed the book, she says: "I was ending a marriage that had dragged on too long. It was a time for me to reflect upon love and relationships, romance and passion, ageing, memory, loss. The things that changed the direction of my life have been totally out of my control: my father abandoning me, my mother marrying a diplomat, the military coup, my daughter’s death".}}

In 2019, she married for the third time, to Roger Cukras, a lawyer from New York.{{Cite web|url=http://www.isabelallende.com/en/timeline#2019|title=Isabel Allende – Timeline |date=2019|publisher=Isabel Allende|access-date=25 March 2020|quote=In July [2019,] Isabel marries Roger Cukras in an intimate ceremony in Washington, D.C.|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325022040/http://www.isabelallende.com/en/timeline#2019|archive-date=25 March 2020}}{{Cite news|author=Beatriz Miranda|url=https://www.elmundo.es/loc/2017/06/10/593ac47a46163fbc5a8b4586.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325015030/https://www.elmundo.es/loc/2017/06/10/593ac47a46163fbc5a8b4586.html|archive-date=25 March 2020|title=Así es Roger Cukras, el nuevo amor de Isabel Allende al que dedica su última novela|trans-title=This is Roger Cukras, the new love of Isabel Allende to whom he dedicates his last novel|date=10 June 2017|publisher=El Mundo|language=es|access-date=25 March 2020}} Allende resides in San Rafael, California. Most of her family lives nearby, with her son, his second wife, and her grandchildren just down the hill, in the house she and her second husband vacated.

{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | headerimage= 210px

| video1 = [http://www.ted.com/talks/isabel_allende_tells_tales_of_passion.html Isabel Allende: Tales of passion], 18:00, TED Talks (2007)

| video2 = {{YouTube|id=q63gKvEFykU#t=4m10s|title=Isabel Allende, "Maya's Notebook"}}, 56:00, talk begins at 4:10, UC Berkeley Events (2013)

| video3 = {{YouTube|OZB94Q4Wkl8|Isabel Allende: A Literary Life}}, 23:30, National Geographic (2013)

}}

• Novel of the Year (Chile, 1983)
• Panorama Literario (Chile, 1983)
• Author of the Year (Germany, 1984)
• Book of the Year (Germany, 1984)
• Grand Prix d'Evasion (France, 1984)
• Grand Prix de la Radio Télévision Belge (Point de Mire, 1985)
• Best Novel (Mexico, 1985)
• Colima Literary Prize (Mexico, 1986)
• Quality Paperback Book Club New Voice (United States; 1986 nominee)
• Author of the Year (Germany, 1986)
• XV Premio Internazionale I Migliori Dell'Anno (Italy, 1987)
• Premio Mulheres a la Mejor Novela Extranjera (Portugal, 1987)
• Los Angeles Times Book Prize nominee (United States, 1987)
• Library Journal{{'}}s Best Book (United States, 1988)
• Before Columbus Foundation Award (United States, 1989)
• Orden al Mérito Docente y Cultural Gabriela Mistral (Chile, 1990)
• XLI Bancarella Literary Prize (Italy, 1993)
• Independent Foreign Fiction Award (England, June–July 1993)
• Brandeis University Major Book Collection Award (United States, 1993)
• Feminist of the Year Award, The Feminist; Majority Foundation (United States, 1994)
• Chevalier des Artes et des Lettres distinction (France, 1994)
• Critics' Choice (United States, 1996)
• Books to Remember, American Library Association (United States, 1996)
• Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature (United States, 1996).{{cite web|title=Hispanic Heritage Awards for Literature|url=http://www.hispanicheritage.org/hispanic_search.php?name=&opt2=10&opt3=0&x=6&y=10|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111011053411/http://hispanicheritage.org/hispanic_det.php?id=51|archive-date=11 October 2011|publisher=Hispanic Heritage Foundation|access-date=11 January 2011|quote=HHA Honorees: 1996 ; Isabel Allende ; Literature ; Isabel Allende is the 1996 Hispanic Heritage Award Honoree in Literature. Ms. Allende is the author of several best-selling novels and short stories. She is able to blend her female perspective with the beautiful magic realism of Latin creativity.}}{{Cite book|last=Snodgrass|first=Mary Ellen|author-link=Mary Ellen Snodgrass|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4FbmtDCGnUMC&pg=PA17|title=Isabel Allende: A Literary Companion|date=19 February 2013|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-7127-0|language=en|quote=Summer 1996:... More honors from the U.S. Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature and the American Library Association Books to Remember boosted her name recognition.}}
• Malaparte Amici di Capri (Italy, 1998)
• Donna Citta Di Roma (Italy, 1998)
• Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (United States, 1998)
• Sara Lee Foundation (United States, 1998)
• Premio Iberoamericano de Letras José Donoso, University of Talca (Chile, 2003)
• Inaugural class of winner of the Great Immigrants Award named by Carnegie Corporation of New York (July 2006){{Cite web |title=2006 Great Immigrants: Isabel Allende |url=https://www.carnegie.org/awards/honoree/isabel-allende/}}
• Premio Honoris Causa, Università di Trento en "lingue e letteratura moderne euroamericane" (Trento, Italy, May 2007)
• Chilean National Prize for Literature (Chile, 2010)
• Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction (USA, 2010)
• Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award (Denmark, 2012){{cite web |title=Isabel Allende Wins the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award |url=http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/notitas-de-noticias/details/isabel-allende-wins-the-hans-christian-andersen-literature-award/8577/ |work=Hispanically Speaking News |date=28 June 2011 |access-date=16 August 2012 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120627041420/http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/notitas-de-noticias/details/isabel-allende-wins-the-hans-christian-andersen-literature-award/8577/ |archive-date=27 June 2012}}{{cite news

|first=Trine|last=Fisker

|url=http://nyhederne.tv2.dk/article.php/id-41191156:allende-f%C3%A5r-hc-andersenpris.html

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325030352/https://nyheder.tv2.dk/article.php/id-41191156%3Aallende-f%25C3%25A5r-hc-andersenpris.html

|archive-date=25 March 2020

|url-status=live

|title=Allende får H.C. Andersen-pris

|trans-title=Allende gets H.C. Andersen Prize

|journal=Nyhederne

|date=28 June 2011

|language=da-DK

|access-date=21 December 2012

}}{{Verse translation |lang=da-dk |Fysisk rager Isabel Allende ikke særlig højt op i billedet, men gennem mange år har hun haft stor litterær betydning for læsere over hele verden. Derfor er det en stolt priskomité, der fortæller Fyens Stiftstidende, at den chilenskfødte forfatter har sagt ja til i september næste år at modtage H.C. Andersen Litteraturpris 2012 i Odense. ...

Det er anden gang, H.C. Andersen Litteraturpris uddeles til en kvinde med sans for det magiske. I oktober 2010 gik prisen, der er på 500.000 kroner, til den skotske fantasy-forfatter, J.K. Rowling - Harry Potters mor. |Physically, Isabel Allende is not very prominent in the picture, but for many years she has had a great literary significance for readers all over the world. Therefore, it is a proud prize committee that tells Fyens Stiftstidende that the Chilean-born author has agreed to receive the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Prize 2012 in Odense in September next year. ...

This is the second time that Hans Christian Andersen Literature Prize has been awarded to a woman with a sense of magic. In October 2010, the DKK 500,000 prize went to Scottish fantasy writer JK Rowling - Harry Potter's mother.}}

• Presidential Medal of Freedom (United States, 2014){{cite news|url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/nation/article/Medal-of-Freedom-honors-achievements-of-18-5915131.php|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325103309/https://www.sfchronicle.com/nation/article/Medal-of-Freedom-honors-achievements-of-18-5915131.php|archive-date=25 March 2020|url-status=live|url-access=subscription|date=24 November 2014|title=Obama awards Presidential Medal of Freedom to 18|work=San Francisco Chronicle|access-date=24 November 2014|quote=[President] Obama praised the accomplishments of winners who overcame hardship to achieve success, including novelist Isabel Allende, who was exiled from her home country of Chile by a military government.}}
• Anisfield-Wolf Book Award: Lifetime Achievement (United States, 2017){{cite web|url=http://www.anisfield-wolf.org/books/the-house-of-the-spirits/|title=Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards - The 82nd Annual|website=Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards - The 82nd Annual|access-date=11 November 2017}}
• BBC 100 Women (United Kingdom, 2018){{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-46225037|title=BBC 100 Women 2018: Who is on the list?|date=19 November 2018|work=BBC News|access-date=23 July 2019|language=en-GB}}
• National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters (United States, 2018){{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalbook.org/nbf-to-present-lifetime-achievement-award-to-acclaimed-author-isabel-allende/|title=NBF to honor Isabel Allende with lifetime achievement award|url-status=live|archive-date=20 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191020210327/https://www.nationalbook.org/nbf-to-present-lifetime-achievement-award-to-acclaimed-author-isabel-allende/|date=20 September 2018|website=National Book Foundation|language=en-US|access-date=20 October 2019|quote=Author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Luís Alberto Urrea to present Medal to Allende ... The National Book Foundation announced it will award Isabel Allende with its 2018 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters (DCAL).}}
• Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D.) from Whittier College.{{Cite web|url=https://www.whittier.edu/alumni/poetnation/honorary|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325033950/https://www.whittier.edu/alumni/poetnation/honorary|archive-date=25 March 2020|title=Honorary Degrees {{!}} Whittier College|publisher=Whittier College|access-date=6 February 2020|quote=Year: 2007; Honored: Isabel Allende, Writer; Degree Granted: Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D.)}}

• The House of the Spirits (1982) La casa de los espíritus
• The Porcelain Fat Lady (1984) La gorda de porcelana
• Of Love and Shadows (1985) De amor y de sombra
• Eva Luna (1987) Eva Luna
• Two Words (1989) Dos Palabras
• The Stories of Eva Luna (1989) Cuentos de Eva Luna
• The Infinite Plan (1991) El plan infinito
• Daughter of Fortune (1999) Hija de la fortuna
• Portrait in Sepia (2000) Retrato en sepia
• City of the Beasts (2002) La ciudad de las bestias
• Kingdom of the Golden Dragon (2004) El reino del dragón de oro
• Zorro (2005) El Zorro: Comienza la leyenda
• Forest of the Pygmies (2005) El bosque de los pigmeos
• Ines of My Soul (2006) Inés del alma mía
• Island Beneath the Sea (2010) La isla bajo el mar
• Maya's Notebook (2011) El Cuaderno de Maya
• Ripper (2014) El juego de Ripper
• The Japanese Lover (2015) El amante japonés
• In the Midst of Winter (2017) Más allá del invierno {{ISBN|1501178156}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.goodreads.com/work/best_book/55863320-m-s-all-del-invierno|title=In the Midst of Winter|publisher=Goodreads|access-date=25 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180812021410/https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34686052-in-the-midst-of-winter|archive-date=12 August 2018|url-status=live|quote=[A] mesmerizing story that journeys from present-day Brooklyn to Guatemala in the recent past to 1970s Chile and Brazil.}}
• A Long Petal of the Sea (2019) Largo pétalo de mar
• Violeta (2022){{Cite web |title=Violeta |url=https://www.penguinlibros.com/es/literatura-contemporanea/256798-libro-violeta-9788401027475 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211120214943/https://www.penguinlibros.com/es/literatura-contemporanea/256798-libro-violeta-9788401027475 |archive-date=20 November 2021 |access-date=28 December 2021 |website=Penguin Libros ES}}
• The Wind Knows My Name (2023){{Cite news |last=Fox |first=Lauren |date=3 June 2023 |title=Isabel Allende Has a Message: History Repeats Itself |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/03/books/review/the-wind-knows-my-name-isabel-allende.html |access-date=11 July 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news |last=Avilés |first=Marcela Davison |date=10 June 2023 |title='The Wind Knows My Name' is a reference and a refrain in the search for home |work=NPR |url=https://www.npr.org/2023/06/10/1180103464/book-review-isabel-allende-novel-the-wind-knows-my-name}}{{Cite web |last=Beauregard |first=Luis Pablo |date=9 July 2023 |title=Isabel Allende: 'In Chile, people are longing for a Bukele. I say to them: be careful, that's how we got Pinochet' |url=https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-07-08/isabel-allende-in-chile-people-are-longing-for-a-bukele-i-say-to-them-be-careful-thats-how-we-got-pinochet.html |access-date=11 July 2023 |website=EL PAÍS English |language=en-us}}{{Cite news |last=Allende |first=Isabel |date=11 July 2023 |title=Help! I Wrote to Prudie for Advice and Isabel Allende Answered. |language=en-US |work=Slate |url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2023/07/isabel-allende-husband-widow-heart-dear-prudence-advice.html |access-date=11 July 2023 |issn=1091-2339}}
• My Name Is Emilia del Valle (2025) Mi nombre es Emilia del Valle

• Paula (1994) Paula {{ISBN|0060927216}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/234050.Paula|url-status=live|archive-date=15 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071015024506/http://goodreads.com/book/show/234050.Paula|title=Paula|publisher=Goodreads|access-date=15 October 2007|quote=Written for her daughter Paula when she became ill and slipped into a coma, Paula is the colorful story of Allende's life -- from her early years in her native Chile, through the turbulent military coup of 1973, to the subsequent dictatorship and her family's years of exile.}}
• Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses (1998) Afrodita
• My Invented Country: A Memoir (2003) Mi país inventado
• The Sum of Our Days (2007) La suma de los días
• The Soul of a Woman (2021) Mujeres del alma mía {{ISBN|9780593355626}}

{{Reflist}}

• Main, Mary. Isabel Allende, Award-Winning Latin American Author. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishing, 2005. – {{ISBN|0-7660-2488-1}}
• Bautista Gutierrez, Gloria, and Norma Corrales-Martin. Pinceladas Literarias Hispanoamericanas. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2004.

{{wikiquote}}

{{Commons}}

• {{Official website|http://www.isabelallende.com}} (English and Spanish)
• [http://www.literaturfestival.com/archive/participants/authors/2007/isabel-allende?set_language=en Isabel Allende at the international literature festival berlin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170731075953/http://www.literaturfestival.com/archive/participants/authors/2007/isabel-allende?set_language=en |date=31 July 2017 }}
• [http://www.isabelallendefoundation.org Isabel Allende Foundation] (English and Spanish)
• {{IMDb name|0021196}}
• {{ISFDB name|Isabel_Allende}}
• {{TED speaker}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname= Isabel Allende}}
• {{C-SPAN|50978}}
• [https://www.loc.gov/item/99470362/ Isabel Allende] recorded at the Library of Congress for the Hispanic Division's audio literary archive on

{{Library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooks=yes|viaf=61556825}}

{{Isabel Allende}}

{{American Book Awards}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allende, Isabel}}

Category:1942 births

Category:20th-century American novelists

Category:20th-century American women writers

Category:20th-century Chilean novelists

Category:20th-century Chilean women writers

Category:21st-century American novelists

Category:21st-century American women writers

Category:21st-century Chilean novelists

Category:21st-century Chilean women writers

Category:American Book Award winners

Category:American Spanish-language writers

Category:American women novelists

Category:Chilean agnostics

Category:Chilean columnists

Category:Chilean satirists

Category:Satirical columnists

Category:Chilean emigrants to the United States

Category:Chilean feminists

Category:Chilean memoirists

Category:Chilean people of Basque descent

Category:Chilean people of Spanish descent

Category:Chilean speculative fiction writers

Category:Chilean women novelists

Category:Hispanic and Latino American novelists

Category:Liceo Javiera Carrera alumni

Category:Living people

Category:Magic realism writers

Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters

Category:National Prize for Literature (Chile) winners

Category:Naturalized citizens of Chile

Category:Writers from Lima

Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States

Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients

Category:American women memoirists

Category:Writers from San Rafael, California

Isabel

Category:The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize winners