57 pages • 1 hour read
Isabel AllendeA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Content Warning: This section discusses racism and warfare.
Isabel Allende, whose full name is Isabel Angelica Allende Llona, is a well-known author in the magical realism genre. She is Chilean American, and her works are usually written and published in Spanish and then translated into English, as was the case with The Japanese Lover. She often writes historical fiction that elevates female characters, using magical realism as a narrative tool to further flesh out and build the worlds in which her narratives take place. Allende lived in Chile, Lebanon, Bolivia, various European countries, and Venezuela before moving to California. She is related to Salvador Allende, the president of Chile between 1970 and 1973 when Allende’s government was dismantled by a coup led by Augusto Pinochet, which forced Isabel Allende to live in Venezuela for 13 years to avoid death threats as a member of the Allende family. During her exile, Allende wrote her first novel, The House of the Spirits, which has since become a bestseller and a foundational example of the magical realism genre.
Magical realism is a genre that incorporates specific supernatural or fantastical elements into otherwise realistic contemporary or historical settings.
By Isabel Allende
A Long Petal of the Sea
Isabel Allende
And of Clay Are We Created
Isabel Allende
City of the Beasts
Isabel Allende
Daughter Of Fortune
Isabel Allende
Eva Luna
Isabel Allende, Transl. Margaret Sayers Peden
In the Midst of Winter
Isabel Allende
Island Beneath the Sea
Isabel Allende
Maya's Notebook: A Novel
Isabel Allende
Of Love and Shadows
Isabel Allende
Paula
Isabel Allende
Portrait in Sepia
Isabel Allende
Ripper
Isabel Allende
The House of the Spirits
Isabel Allende
The Stories of Eva Luna
Isabel Allende
The Wind Knows My Name
Isabel Allende
Two Words
Isabel Allende
Violeta
Isabel Allende
Zorro
Isabel Allende
Aging
View Collection
Art
View Collection
Class
View Collection
Class
View Collection
Hispanic & Latinx American Literature
View Collection
Memory
View Collection
Mortality & Death
View Collection
Popular Book Club Picks
View Collection
Pride Month Reads
View Collection
Romance
View Collection
Valentine's Day Reads: The Theme of Love
View Collection
World War II
View Collection