Isabel Angélica Allende Llona (Spanish: [isaˈβel aˈʝende]; born August 2, 1942) is a Chilean-American writer. Allende’s books sometimes include elements of the magical realism genre. She is known for writing novels such as The House of the Spirits (La casa de los espíritus, 1982) and City of the Beasts (La ciudad de las bestias, 2002), which have sold many copies. Allende has been called "the world's most widely read Spanish-language author." In 2004, she was added to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2010, she received Chile’s National Literature Prize. President Barack Obama gave her the 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Allende’s novels are often inspired by her own life and historical events. They honor the lives of women and combine stories from myths and real life. She has taught literature at colleges in the United States. Allende speaks English fluently and became a U.S. citizen in 1993. She has lived in California since 1989.

Early life

Allende was born in Lima, Peru, in 1942. Her mother was Francisca Llona Barros, also known as "Doña Panchita." Francisca was the daughter of Agustín Llona Cuevas and Isabel Barros Moreira, who had Portuguese ancestors. Her father was Tomás Allende, who worked as a second secretary at the Chilean embassy at that time. Tomás was the first cousin of Salvador Allende, who was the president of Chile from 1970 to 1973.

In 1945, after Tomás left, Isabel's mother moved with her three children to Santiago, Chile. They lived there until 1953. In 1953, Allende's mother married Ramón Huidobro. The family moved frequently. Huidobro was a diplomat who worked in Bolivia and Beirut. In La Paz, Bolivia, Allende went to an American private school. In Beirut, Lebanon, she attended an English private school. The family returned to Chile in 1958, where Allende was briefly homeschooled. As a young person, she read many books, especially the works of William Shakespeare.

In 1970, Salvador Allende appointed Huidobro as the ambassador to Argentina.

Career

Before writing books, Allende worked with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Santiago, then in Brussels, and in other places in Europe from 1959 to 1965. In Chile, she briefly translated romance novels from English to Spanish. However, she lost her job because she changed the dialogue of the heroines without permission to make them sound more intelligent. She also changed the ending of a story to let the heroines become more independent and do good things in the world.

In 1973, Salvador Allende was removed from power in a military takeover led by General Augusto Pinochet. Isabel helped people on a list of those wanted by the government to escape danger. She continued this work until her mother and stepfather narrowly avoided being killed. When Isabel was added to the list and received threats, she left Chile and moved to Venezuela, where she lived for 13 years. During this time, she wrote her first novel, The House of the Spirits (1982). Allende said leaving Chile made her a serious writer: "I don’t think I would be a writer if I had stayed in Chile. I would be trapped in the chores, in the family, in the person that people expected me to be." She believed that, as a woman in a family that followed traditional male leadership, she was not expected to be independent. Her stories often show women challenging leaders who support strict traditional roles. In Venezuela, she wrote for El Nacional, a major newspaper.

From 1967 to 1974, Allende worked as an editor for Paula magazine and Mampato magazine. She wrote two children’s stories, "La Abuela Panchita" and "Lauchas y Lauchones," and a collection of articles called Civilice a Su Troglodita. She also worked in television production for channels 7 and 13 in Chile. As a journalist, she once asked poet Pablo Neruda for an interview. Neruda told her she had too much imagination to be a journalist and should become a novelist instead. He also suggested she publish her satirical columns in a book, which she did. This became her first published book. In 1973, her play El Embajador was performed in Santiago before she left the country because of the coup.

While in Venezuela, Allende worked as a freelance journalist for El Nacional in Caracas from 1976 to 1983. She also managed the Marrocco School in Caracas from 1979 to 1983.

In 1977, while in Caracas, Allende received a phone call saying her 99-year-old grandfather was dying. She wrote him a letter to "keep him alive, at least in spirit." This letter later became The House of the Spirits (1982). The book aimed to address the harm caused by the Pinochet government. It was rejected by many Latin American publishers but was eventually published in Barcelona. The book was translated into many languages and compared to the work of Gabriel García Márquez, a famous writer known for magical realism.

Although Allende is often linked to magical realism, her writing also includes ideas from post-Boom literature. She follows a strict writing schedule, working Monday to Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on a computer. She said she always starts writing on January 8, a tradition she began in 1981 with the letter to her grandfather that became The House of the Spirits.

Allende’s book Paula (1995) is a personal story about her childhood in Santiago and her time in exile. It is written as a letter to her daughter. In 1991, an error in her daughter’s medication caused serious brain damage, leaving her in a long-term unconscious state. Allende spent months with her daughter before learning the mistake was caused by a hospital error. She moved her daughter to a hospital in California, where she died on December 6, 1992.

Allende’s books have been translated into more than 42 languages and sold over 77 million copies. Her 2008 book, The Sum of Our Days, is a memoir about her life with her family, including her grown son, Nicolás; her second husband, William Gordon; and her grandchildren. A novel set in New Orleans, Island Beneath the Sea, was published in 2010. In 2011, El cuaderno de Maya (Maya’s Notebook) was released. The story alternates between Berkeley, California; Chiloé, Chile; and Las Vegas, Nevada.

Reception

In 2007, Latino Leaders Magazine referred to her as a "literary legend" in an article that named her the third most influential Latino leader in the world.

Her work has received some negative feedback. In an article from Entre paréntesis, Roberto Bolaño described Allende's writing as weak, comparing it to "a person on his deathbed," and later called her "a writing machine, not a writer." Literary critic Harold Bloom stated that Allende only "reflects a specific period, and that afterwards everybody will have forgotten her." Novelist Gonzalo Contreras claimed that "she makes a serious mistake by confusing commercial success with literary quality."

Allende told El Clarín that she knows she has not always received positive reviews in Chile, noting that Chilean intellectuals "detest" her. However, she does not agree with these views:

It has been said that "Allende's impact on Latin American and world literature cannot be overestimated." The Los Angeles Times called Allende "a genius," and she has received many international awards, including the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, given to writers "who have contributed to the beauty of the world."

Celebrity

In 2006, she was one of the eight flag bearers at the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. She gave a talk titled Tales of Passion at TED 2007. In 2008, Allende received the honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters from San Francisco State University for her outstanding work as a literary artist and humanitarian. In 1994, she was awarded the Gabriela Mistral Order of Merit, becoming the first woman to receive this honor. In 2014, Allende received the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from Harvard University for her contributions to literature.

Politics

Allende has always supported women's rights. She once said she was a "feminist in kindergarten" and was sent out of school for not following rules after she noticed her brothers had more advantages. She also supports the right to have an abortion.

Although she is not as openly political as some of her fellow writers, she strongly disliked Donald Trump and his actions after he became president in 2016. She later supported Joe Biden in the 2020 election. In 2025, she criticized Trump again, saying he showed disrespect toward women, LGBTQ+ people, and others. She stated, "The Supreme Court has taken away rights from women and the LGBTQ+ community. It is very hard to watch this happen. Women lose rights whenever possible. We must always be watchful. Look at Afghanistan—when the Taliban took control, women lost everything in just one day."

After Henry Kissinger died in November 2023, Allende called him a "war criminal" because of his role in the 1973 overthrow of the government in Chile. She said, "He was the main person behind the United States’ actions in many countries. I know about Latin America, but also about Africa and other places where democracies were replaced by leaders who followed the United States’ wishes."

Allende supports the LGBTQ+ community, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the MeToo movement.

Her books are not published in Israel.

She has often defended the record of her father’s cousin, Salvador Allende.

Foundation

Isabel Allende created the Isabel Allende Foundation on December 9, 1996, to honor her daughter, Paula Frías Allende. Paula fell into a coma due to complications from porphyria, a disease that led to her hospitalization. She was 29 years old when she passed away in 1992. The foundation helps support programs that work to protect and promote the basic rights of women and children to be empowered and safe.

Personal life

Isabel Allende completed her secondary education in Chile before meeting Miguel Frías, an engineering student, whom she married in 1962. The couple had two children: a son and a daughter. It is reported that Allende married young into a family that admired British culture. In private life, she was a devoted wife and mother. In public, she became known as a television personality, playwright, and journalist for a feminist magazine after translating works by Barbara Cartland. Allende and Frías’ daughter, Paula, was born in 1963 and passed away in 1992 at the age of 29. In 1966, Allende returned to Chile, where her son, Nicolás, was born that year. In 1978, she temporarily separated from Frías. She lived in Spain for two months before returning to her marriage. Allende divorced Frías in 1987.

In 1988, during a book tour in California, Allende met her second husband, William C. "Willie" Gordon, a lawyer and novelist. They married in July 1988. Allende separated from Gordon in April 2015.

In 2019, Allende married for the third time to Roger Cukras, a lawyer from New York. She currently lives in San Rafael, California. Most of her family, including her son, his wife, and her grandchildren, resides nearby. Her son and his wife live in the house previously occupied by Allende and her second husband.

Awards

• Novel of the Year (Chile, 1983)
• Panorama Literario (Chile, 1983)
• Best Author (Germany, 1984)
• Best Book (Germany, 1984)
• Grand Prix d'Evasion (France, 1984)
• Grand Prix de la Radio Télévision Belge (Point de Mire, 1985)
• Best Novel (Mexico, 1985)
• Colima Literary Prize (Mexico, 1986)
• Quality Paperback Book Club New Voice (United States, 1986 nominee)
• Best Author (Germany, 1986)
• XV Premio Internazionale I Migliori Dell'Anno (Italy, 1987)
• Premio Mulheres a la Mejor Novela Extranjera (Portugal, 1987)
• Los Angeles Times Book Prize nominee (United States, 1987)
• Library Journal's Best Book (United States, 1988)
• Before Columbus Foundation Award (United States, 1989)
• Orden al Mérito Docente y Cultural Gabriela Mistral (Chile, 1990)
• XLI Bancarella Literary Prize (Italy, 1993)
• Independent Foreign Fiction Award (England, June–July 1993)
• Brandeis University Major Book Collection Award (United States, 1993)
• Feminist of the Year Award, The Feminist; Majority Foundation (United States, 1994)
• Chevalier des Artes et des Lettres honor (France, 1994)
• Critics' Choice (United States, 1996)
• Books to Remember, American Library Association (United States, 1996)
• Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature (United States, 1996)
• Malaparte Amici di Capri (Italy, 1998)
• Donna Citta Di Roma (Italy, 1998)
• Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (United States, 1998)
• Sara Lee Foundation (United States, 1998)
• Premio Iberoamericano de Letras José Donoso, University of Talca (Chile, 2003)
• Inaugural class of winner of the Great Immigrants Award named by Carnegie Corporation of New York (July 2006)
• Premio Honoris Causa, Università di Trento en "lingue e letteratura moderne euroamericane" (Trento, Italy, May 2007)
• Chilean National Prize for Literature (Chile, 2010)
• Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction (USA, 2010)
• Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award (Denmark, 2012)
• Presidential Medal of Freedom (United States, 2014)
• Anisfield-Wolf Book Award: Lifetime Achievement (United States, 2017)
• BBC 100 Women (United Kingdom, 2018)
• National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters (United States, 2018)
• Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D.) from Whittier College.

Works

• The House of the Spirits (1982) La casa de los espíritus
• The Porcelain Fat Lady (1984) La gorda de porcelana
• Of Love and Shadows (1985) De amor y de sombra
• Eva Luna (1987) Eva Luna
• Two Words (1989) Dos Palabras
• The Stories of Eva Luna (1989) Cuentos de Eva Luna
• The Infinite Plan (1991) El plan infinito
• Daughter of Fortune (1999) Hija de la fortuna
• Portrait in Sepia (2000) Retrato en sepia
• City of the Beasts (2002) La ciudad de las bestias
• Kingdom of the Golden Dragon (2004) El reino del dragón de oro
• Zorro (2005) El Zorro: Comienza la leyenda
• Forest of the Pygmies (2005) El bosque de los pigmeos
• Ines of My Soul (2006) Inés del alma mía
• Island Beneath the Sea (2010) La isla bajo el mar
• Maya's Notebook (2011) El Cuaderno de Maya
• Ripper (2014) El juego de Ripper
• The Japanese Lover (2015) El amante japonés
• In the Midst of Winter (2017) Más allá del invierno ISBN 1501178156
• A Long Petal of the Sea (2019) Largo pétalo de mar
• Violeta (2022)
• The Wind Knows My Name (2023)
• My Name Is Emilia del Valle (2025) Mi nombre es Emilia del Valle

• Paula (1994) Paula ISBN 0060927216
• Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses (1998) Afrodita
• My Invented Country: A Memoir (2003) Mi país inventado
• The Sum of Our Days (2007) La suma de los días
• The Soul of a Woman (2021) Mujeres del alma mía ISBN 9780593355626