POWER IN PROSE

Bestselling author Isabel Allende, known for The House Of The Spirits and Daughter Of Fortune, returns with My Name Is Emilia Del Valle. Written in Allende’s signature storytelling style, it follows Emilia’s journey amid a Chilean civil war

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Despite having her novels translated into over 42 languages and selling millions of copies worldwide, Isabel Allende admits, “I forget my books.” It’s a surprising confession – until she explains that, for her, a book no longer belongs to her once it’s written, it belongs to the readers. She is, however, grateful to The House Of The Spirits because it gave her a voice: “It made me a writer and paved the way for all my other books. I also feel grateful to Paula, a memoir about the life and death of my daughter, because it has touched many people and has kept her spirit alive.”

Speaking about what inspired Emilia’s story, Allende says she was interested in the Chilean civil war of 1891 because it had certain parallels with the military coup in 1973 — a coup that led to her exile from her home country of Chile. “In both cases, there was a progressive president who wanted to make substantial changes to benefit the people but faced fierce opposition from the conservatives; the armed forces intervened, the government was toppled and the president committed suicide,” she says.