(Isabel Allende parte de la célebre cita de Albert Camus -...)
Isabel Allende parte de la célebre cita de Albert Camus -"en medio del invierno aprendí por fin que había en mí un verano invencible"- para urdir una trama que presenta la geografía humana de unos personajes propios de la América de hoy que se hallan "en el más profundo invierno de sus vidas": una chilena, una joven guatemalteca indocumentada y un maduro norteamericano. Los tres sobreviven a un terrible temporal de nieve que cae en pleno invierno sobre Nueva York y acaban aprendiendo que más allá del invierno hay sitio para el amor inesperado y para el verano invencible que siempre ofrece la vida cuando menos se espera. Más allá del invierno es una de las historias más personales de Isabel Allende: una obra absolutamente actual que aborda la realidad de la emigración y la identidad de la América de hoy a través de unos personajes que encuentran la esperanza en el amor y en las segundas oportunidades.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0525436456/?tag=2022091-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/150117813X/?tag=2022091-20
( Las aventuras picarescas de una Sherezade latinoamerica...)
Las aventuras picarescas de una Sherezade latinoamericana, relatando su nacimiento ilegÍtimo, su orfandad, su adolescencia sin rumbo, sus actividades contra el gobierno, y su romance con un problemÁtico director de pelÍculas documentales. Por medio de su don narrativo, Eva Luna inventa una realidad personal determinada por la magia y el destino.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060951281/?tag=2022091-20
(From New York Times bestselling author Isabel Allende a m...)
From New York Times bestselling author Isabel Allende a magical and sweeping Publishers Weekly starred review love story and multigenerational epic that stretches from San Francisco in the present day to Poland and the United States during World War II In 1939 as Poland falls under the shadow of the Nazis young Alma Belasco s parents send her away to live in safety with an aunt and uncle in their opulent mansion in San Francisco There as the rest of the world goes to war she encounters Ichimei Fukuda the quiet and gentle son of the family s Japanese gardener Unnoticed by those around them a tender love affair begins to blossom Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the two are cruelly pulled apart as Ichimei and his familylike thousands of other Japanese Americansare declared enemies and forcibly relocated to internment camps run by the United States government Throughout their lifetimes Alma and Ichimei reunite again and again but theirs is a love that they are forever forced to hide from the world Decades later Alma is nearing the end of her long and eventful life Irina Bazili a care worker struggling to come to terms with her own troubled past meets the elderly woman and her grandson Seth at San Francisco s charmingly eccentric Lark House nursing home As Irina and Seth forge a friendship they become intrigued by a series of mysterious gifts and letters sent to Alma eventually learning about Ichimei and this extraordinary secret passion that has endured for nearly seventy years Sweeping through time and spanning generations and continents The Japanese Lover explores questions of identity abandonment and redemption Written with the same keen understanding of her characters that Isabel Allende has been known for since her landmark first novel The House of the Spirits The Japanese Lover is a moving tribute to the constancy of the human heart in a world of unceasing change
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1501116991/?tag=2022091-20
(An ecological romance with a pulsing heart, equal parts R...)
An ecological romance with a pulsing heart, equal parts Rider Haggard and Chico Buarque -- one of the world's greatest and most beloved storytellers broadens her style and reach with a Amazonian adventure story which will appeal to all ages Fifteen-year-old Alexander Cold has the chance to take the trip of a lifetime. With his mother in hospital, too ill to look after him, Alex is sent out to his grandmother Kate -- a fearless reporter with blue eyes 'as sharp as daggers' points'. Kate is about to embark on an expedition to the dangerous, remote world of the Amazon rainforest, but rather than change her plans, she simply takes Alex along with her. They set off with their team -- including a local guide and his daughter Nadia, with her wild, curly hair and skin the colour of honey -- in search of a fabled headhunting tribe and a legendary, marauding creature known to locals only as 'the Beast', only to find out much, much more about the mysteries of the jungle and its inhabitants. In a novel rich in adventure, magic and spirit, internationally-celebrated novelist Isabel Allende takes readers of all ages on a voyage of discovery and wonder, deep into the heart of the Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/000714637X/?tag=2022091-20
( In the early years of the conquest of the Americas, Iné...)
In the early years of the conquest of the Americas, Inés Suárez, a seamstress condemned to a life of toil, flees Spain to seek adventure in the New World. As Inés makes her way to Chile, she begins a fiery romance with Pedro de Valdivia, war hero and field marshal to the famed Francisco Pizarro. Together the lovers will build the new city of Santiago, and they will wage war against the indigenous Chileans—a bloody struggle that will change Inés and Valdivia forever, inexorably pulling each of them toward separate destinies. Inés of My Soul is a work of breathtaking scope that masterfully dramatizes the known events of Inés Suárez's life, crafting them into a novel rich with the narrative brilliance and passion readers have come to expect from Isabel Allende.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061161543/?tag=2022091-20
(A los veintidós años, sospechando que tenían el tiempo c...)
A los veintidós años, sospechando que tenían el tiempo contado, Ichimei y Alma se atragantaron de amor para consumirlo entero, pero mientras más intentaban agotarlo, más imprudente era el deseo, y quien diga que todo fuego se apaga solo tarde o temprano, se equivoca: hay pasiones que son incendios hasta que las ahoga el destino de un zarpazo y aun así quedan brasas calientes listas para arder apenas se les da oxígeno.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1101971649/?tag=2022091-20
(Ésta es la historia de una mujer y de un hombre que se am...)
Ésta es la historia de una mujer y de un hombre que se amaron en plenitud, salvándose así de una existencia vulgar. Segunda novela de Isabel Allende, De amor y de sombra es un agudo testimonio de las dramáticas situaciones que se viven en ciertas regiones de América Latina, al tiempo que un canto de amor y de esperanza. Un conmovedor testimonio en el cual la autora no pretende denunciar lo ya sabido, sino mediante un exquisito arte de novelista ahondar en el sentido de todo lo que pasa y hacerlo más humano.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0525433570/?tag=2022091-20
( When Isabel Allende's daughter, Paula, became gravely i...)
When Isabel Allende's daughter, Paula, became gravely ill and fell into a coma, the author began to write the story of her family for her unconscious child. In the telling, bizarre ancestors appear before our eyes; we hear both delightful and bitter childhood memories, amazing anecdotes of youthful years, and the most intimate secrets passed along in whispers. With Paula, Allende has written a powerful autobiography whose straightforward acceptance of the magical and spiritual worlds will remind readers of her first book, The House of the Spirits. Please note, front cover image of the item may vary.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061564907/?tag=2022091-20
(Meet New York Times bestselling author Isabel Allendes m...)
Meet New York Times bestselling author Isabel Allendes most enchanting creation, Eva Luna: a lover, a writer, a revolutionary, and above all a storyteller. Eva Luna is the daughter of a professors assistant and a snake-bitten gardenerborn poor, orphaned at an early age, and working as a servant. Eva is a naturally gifted and imaginative storyteller who meets people from all stations and walks of life. Though she has no wealth, she trades her stories like currency with people who are kind to her. In this novel, she shares the story of her own life and introduces readers to a diverse and eccentric cast of characters including the Lebanese émigré who befriends her and takes her in; her unfortunate godmother, whose brain is addled by rum and who believes in all the Catholic saints and a few of her own invention; a street urchin who grows into a petty criminal and, later, a leader in the guerrilla struggle; a celebrated transsexual entertainer who instructs her in the ways of the adult world; and a young refugee whose flight from postwar Europe will prove crucial to Eva's fate. As Eva tells her story, Isabel Allende conjures up a whole complex South American nationthe rich, the poor, the simple, and the sophisticatedin a novel replete with character and incident, with drama and comedy and history, with battles and passions, rebellions and reunions, a novel that celebrates the power of imagination to create a better world.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1501117084/?tag=2022091-20
(The unforgettable first novel that established Isabel All...)
The unforgettable first novel that established Isabel Allende as one of the worlds most gifted and imaginative storytellers. The House of the Spirits brings to life the triumphs and tragedies of three generations of the Trueba family. The patriarch Esteban is a volatile, proud man whose voracious pursuit of political power is tempered only by his love for his delicate wife, Clara, a woman with a mystical connection to the spirit world. When their daughter Blanca embarks on a forbidden love affair in defiance of her implacable father, the result is an unexpected gift to Esteban: his adored granddaughter Alba, a beautiful and strong-willed child who will lead her family and her country into a revolutionary future. One of the most important novels of the twentieth century, The House of the Spirits is an enthralling epic that spans decades and lives, weaving the personal and the political into a universal story of love, magic, and fate.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1501117017/?tag=2022091-20
(Para ser una esclava en el Saint-Domingue de finales del ...)
Para ser una esclava en el Saint-Domingue de finales del siglo XVIII, Zarité había tenido buena estrella: a los nueve años fue vendida a Toulouse Valmorain, un rico terrateniente, pero no conoció ni el agotamiento de las plantaciones de caña ni la asfixia y el sufrimiento de los trapiches, porque siempre fue una esclava doméstica. Su bondad natural, fortaleza de espíritu y honradez le permitieron compartir los secretos y la espiritualidad que ayudaban a sobrevivir a los suyos, los esclavos, y conocer las miserias de los amos, los blancos. Zarité se convirtió en el centro de un microcosmos que era un reflejo del mundo de la colonia: el amo Valmorain, su frágil esposa española y su sensible hijo Maurice, el sabio Parmentier, el militar Relais y la cortesana mulata Violette, Tante Rose, la curandera, Gambo, el apuesto esclavo rebelde y otros personajes de una cruel conflagración que acabaría arrasando su tierra y lanzándolos lejos de ella. Al ser llevada por su amo a Nueva Orleans, Zarité inició una nueva etapa en la que alcanzaría su mayor aspiración: la libertad. Más allá del dolor y del amor, de la sumisión y la independencia, de sus deseos y los que le habían impuesto a lo largo de su vida, Zarité podía contemplarla con serenidad y concluir que había tenido buena estrella. From the Hardcover edition.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307476057/?tag=2022091-20
(La casa de los espíritus narra la saga familiar de los Tr...)
La casa de los espíritus narra la saga familiar de los Trueba, desde principios del siglo XX hasta nuestra época. Magistralmente ambientada en algún lugar de América Latina, la novela sigue paso a paso el dramático y extravagante destino de unos personajes atrapados en un entorno sorprendente y exótico. Una novela de impecable pulso estilístico y aguda lucidez histórica y social.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0525433473/?tag=2022091-20
(Paula es el libro más conmovedor, más personal y más ínti...)
Paula es el libro más conmovedor, más personal y más íntimo de Isabel Allende. Junto al lecho en que agonizaba su hija Paula, la gran narradora chilena escribió la historia de su familia y de sí misma con el propósito de regalársela a Paula cuando ésta superara el dramático trance. El resultado se convirtió en un autorretrato de insólita emotividad y en una exquisita recreación de la sensibilidad de las mujeres de nuestra época.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0525433503/?tag=2022091-20
(Cuentos de Eva Luna / Stories of Eva Luna)
Cuentos de Eva Luna / Stories of Eva Luna
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0525433627/?tag=2022091-20
(This profoundly moving tale of love bravery and tragedy b...)
This profoundly moving tale of love bravery and tragedy by New York Times bestselling author Isabel Allende brings to life a country ruled with an iron fistand the men and women who dare to challenge it Irene Beltrn is a force to be reckoned with As a magazine journalist an unusual profession for a woman with her privileged upbringing she is constantly challenging the oppressive regime Her investigative partner is photographer Francisco Leal the son of impoverished Spanish Marxist migrs Together they are an inseparable team anddespite Irene s engagement to an army captainform a passionate connection When an assignment leads them to uncover an unspeakable crime they are determined to reveal the truth in a nation overrun by terror and violence Together they will risk everything for justiceand ultimately to embrace the passion that binds them
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1501117041/?tag=2022091-20
Allende was born on August 2, 1942 in Lima, Peru, the daughter of Francisca Llona Barros and Tomás Allende, who was at the time a second secretary at the Chilean embassy. Her father was a first cousin of Salvador Allende, President of Chile from 1970 to 1973; thus the former head of state is her first cousin once removed.
Allende graduated from a private high school at the age of 16.
Allende also went to work for the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization in Santiago, where she was a secretary for several years. Later, she became a journalist, editor, and advice columnist for Paula magazine. In addition, she worked as a television interviewer and on movie newsreels.
When her uncle, Chilean president Salvador Allende, was assassinated in 1973 as part of a right-wing military coup against his socialist government, Allende's life changed profoundly. Initially, she did not think that the new regime would endure, but later she came to realize that it was too dangerous to stay in Chile. As a result, Allende, her husband, and their two children fled to Venezuela. Although she had established a successful career as a journalist in Chile, Allende nevertheless had a difficult time finding work in journalism in Venezuela.
During her life in exile, Allende was inspired to write The House of the Spirits. The novel was adapted for the screen by the Danish writer and director Bille August and released in the United States in 1994. Based on Allende's memories of her family and the political upheaval in her native country, the book chronicles the personal and political conflicts in the lives of successive generations of a family in an anonymous Latin American country. These events are principally communicated through the memories of the novel's three central characters: Esteban and Clara, the patriarch and matriarch of the Trueba family, and Alba, their leftist granddaughter who falls into the hands of torturers during a military coup.
The House of Spirits was followed by Of Love and Shadows, which concerns the switching at birth of two infant girls. One of the babies grows up to become the focus of a journalist's investigation, and the revelation of her assassination compels the reporter and photographer to go into exile.
Became Powerful Storyteller Allende's next book, Eva Luna, focuses on the relationship between Eva-an illegitimate scriptwriter and storyteller-and Rolfe Carlé-an Austrian émigré filmmaker haunted by his father's Nazi past.
Further, Alan Ryan of the Washington Post Book World asserted that Eva Luna is "a remarkable novel, one in which a cascade of stories tumbles out before the reader, stories vivid and passionate and human enough to engage, in their own right, all the reader's attention and sympathy. " Allende followed up this novel with Cuentos de Eva Luna (1991; The Stories of Eva Luna), in which the heroine of Eva Luna relates several stories to her lover Carlé.
The Eva Luna stories were followed by El plan infinito (1993; The Infinite Plan) which, in a stylistic departure for Allende, features a male hero in a North American setting. Gregory Reeves is the son of a traveling preacher and prophet who settles in the Hispanic barrio of Los Angeles after becoming ill. As the only Anglo boy in the district, Reeves is tormented by local gang members. Eventually, he finds his way out of the barrio, does a tour of duty in Vietnam, and goes on to study law at Berkeley.
The Infinite Plan received less praise than Allende's previous books; Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times described the novel as a "Bildungsroman-cum-family saga that owes more to Judith Krantz than to Gabriel García Márquez, " concluding that it is "disappointing and mechanical. "
Allende's latest work, Paula (1995), is a heartrending account of the circumstances surrounding the lengthy illness and death of her daughter in 1991.
Commenting on the deeply emotive effect of Paula, the reviewer for Publishers Weekly declared that "[only] a writer of Allende's passion and skill could share her tragedy with her readers and leave them exhilarated and grateful. "
Isabel Allende (born 1942) has received international acclaim for her writing. Allende earned the Quality Paperback Book Club New Voice Award nomination for her debut novel, La casa de los espíritus (1982; The House of the Spirits)-which became a best seller in Spain and West Germany in the 19806 and a 1994 movie-and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize nomination for De amor y de sombra (1984; Of Love and Shadows). In 1988 Allende's third novel, Eva Luna, was voted One of the Year's Best Books by Library Journal. Many of Allende's books are noted for their feminine perspective, dramatic qualities of romance and struggle, and the magic realism genre often found in Latin American literature. Her female characters survive hardships-imprisonment, starvation, the loss of loved ones-but never lose their spirit or ability to love others. In September of 1996, Allende was honored at the Hispanic Heritage Awards for her contributions to the Hispanic American community. In 1994, she was awarded the Gabriela Mistral Order of Merit, the first woman to receive this honor.
(From New York Times bestselling author Isabel Allende a m...)
(This profoundly moving tale of love bravery and tragedy b...)
(A los veintidós años, sospechando que tenían el tiempo c...)
(Isabel Allende parte de la célebre cita de Albert Camus -...)
(Para ser una esclava en el Saint-Domingue de finales del ...)
(An ecological romance with a pulsing heart, equal parts R...)
( Las aventuras picarescas de una Sherezade latinoamerica...)
( When Isabel Allende's daughter, Paula, became gravely i...)
(Meet New York Times bestselling author Isabel Allendes m...)
( In the early years of the conquest of the Americas, Iné...)
(The unforgettable first novel that established Isabel All...)
(Ésta es la historia de una mujer y de un hombre que se am...)
(La casa de los espíritus narra la saga familiar de los Tr...)
(Paula es el libro más conmovedor, más personal y más ínti...)
(Cuentos de Eva Luna / Stories of Eva Luna)
Quotations:
However, she disagrees with these assessments, and has been quoted saying:
"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. "
Quotes from others about the person
Of Allende's House of Spirits, which has been compared to that of the Nobel prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, Lori Carlson observed in Review: "There is a lot of love in The House of the Spirits. The love-making of powerful men and naive women, worn-out married couples and anxious rebels might even conjure up the reader's personal experience. But there is another kind of love in this book with which the reader cannot identify. It is a kind that requires forgiving the person whose torturous hand has shoved your face into a bucket of excrement. A spiritual force that can overcome a world sutured with evil, to beget art. Isabel Allende . .. tells in this, her first novel, a vibrant story of struggle and survival dedicated to her mother, grandmother, and 'other extraordinary' women in a country unnamed. Given the descriptions of events and people in the book. .. Chile quickly comes to mind. "
The Detroit Free Press described Of Love and Shadows as "a frightening, powerful work, " in which Allende "proves her continued capacity for generating excellent fiction, " while the Toronto Globe and Mail commented that "Allende has some difficulty in getting her novel started because she has to weave two stories separately, and seems to be relying initially too much on her skills as a journalist. "
The novel received positive reviews; for example, Abigail E. Lee in the Times Literary Supplement wrote, "Fears that Isabel Allende might be a 'one-book' writer. .. ought to be quashed by Eva Luna. .. . Allende moves between the personal and the political, between realism and fantasy, weaving two exotic coming-of-age stories-Eva Luna's and Rolfe Carlé's-into the turbulent coming of age of her unnamed South American country. "
According to Alan Ryan in USA Today , "These stories transport us to a complex world of sensual pleasures, vivid dreams and breathless longings. It is a world in which passions are fierce, motives are profound and deeds have inexorable consequences. " Anne Whitehouse of The Baltimore Sun noted that "Ms. Allende possesses the ability to penetrate the hearts of Eva's characters in a few brief sentences. .. . These are profound, transcendent stories, which hold the mirror up to nature and in their strangeness reveal us to ourselves. "
Still, as novelist Jane Smiley pointed out in her Boston Globe review, "Not many [émigré authors] have even attempted writing a novel from the point of view of a native of the new country. "
In 1962, she married her first husband, Miguel Frías, an engineer. On a lecture tour to San Jose, California, to promote the publication of Of Love and Shadows in the United States, Allende met William Gordon, a lawyer, who was an admirer of her work and with whom she fell in love.
Having been divorced from her first husband for about a year, she married Gordon in 1988, and has lived with him in their suburban home in Marin, California, ever since.
