• Isabel Allende Autobiography
• Isabel Allende Book List
• Isabel Allende Daughter
• Isabel Allende Interesting Stories
• The Sum Of Our Days
• Isabel Allende Memoir 2003

Isabel Allende brings her magical storytelling powers to a highly personal and charmingly idiosyncratic look at the intertwined sensual arts of food and love. Blending personal reminiscence with folklore from around the world, historical legends, and memorable moments from literature—erotic and otherwise—Allende spices her narrative with. Such an intimate memoir as Isabel Allende is known for, does not disappoint. She describes her tribal family as its unquestioned matriarch. All the ups and downs, losses and gifts of her life, make up The Sum of Our Days. Because it is also and particularly a family story, so it is not just her days, but a collective of 'our days.'

The Soul of a Woman by Isabel Allende. Bloomsbury. Pages 192. Rs 699

Book Title: The Soul of a Woman

Isabel Allende Autobiography

Author: Isabel Allende

Nonika Singh

Can a soul, which is known as aatman if we were to go by Indian philosophy, have a gender? This might be too hypothetical a question, but women certainly have an indefatigable spirit that the patriarchal society, as a rule, tries its level best to cow down to submission. For, in every generation and in every corner of the world stands a woman like this renowned author from Chile. Isabel Allende bucks the trend and establishes her own mores.

A self-confessed feminist at five, Allende, now settled in California, tells her story as it takes off from a fatherless childhood (her father abandoned her mother) to find her niche as a successful writer. On the surface, it may seem like a regular memoir of an independent woman. But dig deeper and Isabel, author of over 26 books translated into 42 languages, could well be telling the story of millions of women, including her own mother.

India and its near brutal treatment of the girl child too surface in an anecdote that Allende recounts almost like a fable. Her style is anecdotal and her feminism is not the bra burning sorts. Married for the third time at 75, she does not denounce a woman’s need for love or companionship. Yet, all through the book, she challenges patriarchal values and taboos that insidiously work against women. Only, her reflections are peppered with humour, insight and bite.

Isabel Allende Book List

Each page is rippling with wisecracks worth pondering over. Even when she defines terms like patriarchy or feminism or brings to us harsh facts about atrocities against women, such as genital mutilation, she is extremely readable. With effortless ease, she weaves her story with those of other feminist heroes, like the first female president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, or activist Olga Murray. In her inimitable way, she recreates the ancient tale of the Caliph of Baghdad, once again raising the question, “what do women want”, and answering it too.

If Bella Abzug’s words — “In 21st century women will change the nature of power instead of power changing the nature of women” — are coming true, one must thank women like Isabel for ushering in the new dynamics. If she views the new wave of young feminists as ‘defiant, creative and with a sense of humour’, she emerges no different. Mae West said, “You are never too old to become younger.” Isabel’s voice is as wise as youthful and echoes with resolute feminine power.

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Isabel Allende Daughter

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Overview

Isabel Allende Interesting Stories

“A stunningly intimate memoir. . . . Allende is that rare writer whose understanding of story matches her mastery of language.”—

The Sum Of Our Days

Entertainment Weekly

The revered New York Times bestselling author of House of the Spirits and A Long Petal of the Sea ponders the elements that led to her becoming a writer, including the homeland she lost and the one she found, and the family spirits, both living and dead, who haunt her life and work.

Isabel Allende Memoir 2003

In this wondrous and intimate book, Isabel Allende explores the role of memory and nostalgia in shaping her life, her books, and that most intimate connection to her place of origin. My Invented Country brings her homeland of Chile to life in her unique voice, evoking the magnificent landscapes of her land, the almost mythic people of her family; the tragedy and hope of her people; and the politics, religion, and magic that infuse them all.

My Invented Country orbits two life-changing moments: the 1973 assassination of her uncle Salvador Allende Gossens which sent her into exile and inspired her literary career; and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, on her adopted homeland, the United States. Ping-ponging across distance and time, between past and present lives, it is a monumental tribute to history and the immigrant experience and a wise and personal consideration of what it means to pursue a reflective life in a cacophonous, contradictory world.