Isabel Allende

Today I thought the time had come to write about a fascinating writer in South American Literature who has meant a lot to me over the past 13 years. Her name is Isabel Allende, whose books have reached the intimate layer of everybody's soul, with the relentless mission to spread the powerful inner voice simmered in every woman around the world and where the magical dimension entwines with reality. Most of her novels contain aspects of the genre called "Magical Realism."

Every book carries the adventures and personal journeys of innocent, brave, and stubborn women who find their strength under the distinct sign of their essence and spirit; Isabel Allende has been doing this with the enchantment of love, forbidden passions, respect, and the sense of belonging to one another always preserving their origins. I recognise myself in most of the female characters, just because of her extraordinary capacity of revealing the hidden side of yourself that you had never known you had. I remember to hold my breath while my eyes scroll through the pages; my time, in Isabel stories, was completely different, and almost inexistent. I have learnt the subtle art of bearing sorrows and losses, and, unmistakably, how to get over these.

"When I write fiction, I never try to deliver a message; I just want to tell a story. But I admit that I want the story to be memorable and the characters to touch the reader's heart." —I.A.

Isabel Allende is a woman before being a writer. Throughout her novel, the primary desire is to redeem all the lack of rights, social inequality, and sorrow that mostly affected the 1940s womanhood. She was born into a Catholic-oriented family in Chile with a conservative and patriarchal model, raised under the protection of her grandfather—who was a central figure for Isabel's childhood—and alongside her mother. (She never had the presence of her father.)

She has always been strong, independent with a groundbreaking, innovative attitude, but at the same time, a wholehearted person who enjoyed family reunions, human relations, and the possibility of giving something to someone else even with no expectations—precisely like all the heroines in her books. Isabel, since her early university studies, followed the inspiration of the woman with her voice and her point of view, which expressed during the period of collaboration with the Chilean magazine, Paula. (1967 to 1974) She was determined to give women the deserved position in the masculine world of literature.

"I never said I wanted a 'happy' life but an interesting one. From separation and loss, I have learned a lot. I have become strong and resilient, as is the case of almost every human being, exposed to life and the world. We don't even know how strong we are until we are forced to bring that hidden strength forward." —I.A.

My beautiful encounter with her magical stories began with her first novel The House of the Spirits, published in 1981, whose manuscript took life from the letters Isabel sent to her grandfather in Chile during his illness. The book will change Isabel's life forever and made of her one of the most acclaimed writers in the world. From that moment on, she knew, deep inside, she would become a writer professionally. She is the writer who kept my hope and my woman spirit alive throughout all this time; I never missed out any of her new releases, even from Australia, where last year I asked my mum to send over a copy in Italian. Reading her beautiful stories in my language connects me with the right harmony and the emotional side of Allende's Spirits. After having read that book, I decided to be one with myself through that magical universe studded with imaginary characters whose essence reveals to be the one inside you and around you, whispering the most surprising secrets of life.

I truly and deeply recommend—to whom that yet don't know her—to let the enchantment of her writing take you to that place you never thought to belong.