Writing a memoir is much harder than a novel, says Isabel Allende

A bloody civil war and the tragic death by suicide of an ousted president served as inspiration for Isabel Allende’s new novel, “My Name is Emilia del Valle.” The story centres on Emilia del Valle, a young Californian journalist who is dispatched to Chile to report on the confrontation between congressmen and those loyal to President José Manuel Balmaceda in 1891. “I was always curious about that civil war,” Allende, 82, said in a video interview.

- 

“More Chileans died there than in the four years of the war against Peru and Bolivia and they killed each other like beasts.”

From her home in Belvedere, California, the Chilean-American writer said that Balmaceda’s fate in Chile echoes that of her uncle, President Salvador Allende, in 1973; both were progressive leaders, faced fierce resistance from the right and Congress and died by suicide. Salvador Allende killed himself during Gen. Augusto Pinochet's coup in 1973, which established a 17-year dictatorship and left more than 40,000 victims. To tell the story of Balmaceda in the book — available in English with a Spanish edition following on May 20 — Allende was interested in a character who was neither a congressman nor a member of the government, so Emilia del Valle emerged, a curious and adventurous 25-year-old. Fluent in Spanish with Chilean roots from her biological father (born out of wedlock), Emilia travels to Chile to report on the war — but also to find her roots.

“Despite everything that happens to her, she falls in love with the country,” said Allende, who once again intertwines California and Chile in her narrative, “It's very easy for me to write about Chile, even though I haven't lived there for so many years.”

On the battlefield, Emilia meets Angelita Ayalef, a Mapuche woman who is part of the so-called “cantineras” (bartenders), women who followed the army to feed and cure soldiers, among other functions.