Violeta was particularly poignant and relevant, as it is a letter written on the 100th anniversary of another pandemic, the Spanish Flu.Ĭhilean born in Peru, Isabel won worldwide acclaim in 1982 with the publication of her first novel, The House of the Spirits, which began as a letter to her dying grandfather. I recently read Allende’s latest bestseller, Violeta (which I couldn’t put down), and came to appreciate Allende’s special brand of feminism - profiling strong women as they encounter devastating disappointments, moments of poverty and prosperity, terrible losses and immense joys. The story resonates with the magical realism that is characteristic of much Latin American literature, but it also touches on themes of migration, and how people experience settling in a new country. I wanted to describe this exuberant country that I was falling in love with,” Allende says.

Many of the anecdotes in Eva Luna are from Elsa Morales’ life. Allende says it was inspired by her time living in Venezuela, and her friendship with a young artist named Elsa Morales. Eva Luna is a poor child living in an unnamed country in South America orphaned at a young age and learns to rely on her wits and love of words and storytelling to survive. Published in 1987, Eva Luna features a diverse cast of characters including immigrants from many countries. Now 80, Allende -novelist, feminist, and philanthropist-is one of the most widely-read authors in the world, having sold more than 77 million books.

Allende is a bestselling author who was born in Peru, grew up in Chile and has lived in other countries including Venezuela and the United States. Our February book of the month, Eva Luna, is set in a fictional country in South America, written by Isabel Allende.

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