Isabel Allende is a Chilean-American writer who has established herself as one of the most widely read and recognized authors in Latin American literature. Her style is characterized by the use of magical realism and the empowerment of women’s voices.

Born in Peru in 1942, she spent her childhood in Chile and later traveled to several countries due to her stepfather’s diplomatic career. After the 1973 coup that overthrew her cousin Salvador Allende, she went into exile in Venezuela, where she began her literary career as a journalist and novelist. Her first novel, The House of the Spirits, published in 1982, became a worldwide success and was adapted into a film.

Since then, she has published over twenty books, including Of Love and Shadows, Eva Luna, The Infinite Plan, Daughter of Fortune, Portrait in Sepia, City of the Beasts, The Japanese Lover, and A Long Petal of the Sea. Her work has been translated into more than forty languages and has sold over seventy million copies, making her the best-selling Spanish-language author. She has received numerous awards and distinctions, including the Chilean National Literature Prize, the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the National Book Award. Since 1987, she has resided in California, where she describes herself as an “eternal foreigner.