Isabel Allende was born in Lima, Peru, and moved to Chile when she was three years old; she comes from a major Chilean political family and identifies herself as a Chilean. Her childhood was spent with her maternal grandparents in Santiago, Chile, following the divorce of her parents. She represents her grandparents as Esteban and Clara Trueba in her best-known novel, The House of the Spirits. Educated partly in England and Europe, Allende returned to Chile in her early twenties to become a journalist and to involve herself in feminism and political causes. She spent the years 1964 through 1974 writing articles and editing journals; she also worked on television shows and film documentaries. Her early experiences before the 1973 military coup in Chile, which changed her life, included editing Paulamagazine and conducting interviews for television stations.
Allende was married to engineer Miguel Frias in 1962 and was divorced from him in 1987; her two children, Paula and Nicholas, were born of this union. Her daughter Paula’s illness and death, the major tragedy of Allende’s adult life, are recounted in the memoir Paula. In 1988 Allende married William Gordon.
Publishers Weekly
PW Reviews 2013 December #4
Bestseller Allende (The House of the Spirits) successfully tries her hand at a mystery, which features an unlikely team of sleuths united by an online mystery game named after the infamous Whitechapel murderer. High school senior Amanda Martín is the games master for a group that includes her grandfather, Blake Jackson; a wheelchair-bound New Zealand boy with the online persona of a Gypsy girl named Esmeralda; and a 13-year-old boy with a high IQ who calls himself Sherlock Holmes. Amanda persuades her cohorts to investigate real-life crimes in 2012 San Francisco, starting with the murder of Ed Staton, a school security guard. A month earlier, Amanda's astrologer godmother predicted that San Francisco would suffer a bloodbath. The prophecy seems more credible when other murders follow Staton's. While this genre outing isn't as memorable as the author's more groundbreaking fiction, her facility with plotting and pacing will keep readers turning the pages. 7-city author tour. Agent: Carmen Balcells, Carmen Balcells Agency. (Feb.)
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Ripper
By: Allende, Isabel
Fascinated by the dark side of human nature, high school senior Amanda Jackson, a natural-born
sleuth addicted to an online mystery game called Ripper, launches her own investigation into a string of strange murders across the city that hits too close to home when her mother vanishes.
Read-alikes
- Monkeewrench
Tracy, P. J., (Joint pseudonym)
Reason: When computer games bleed over into real life, and vice versa, the characters get sucked into high-stakes serial murder investigations in Ripper, set in San Francisco, and Monkeewrench, set in Minneapolis. -- Katherine Johnson - The restoration game
MacLeod, Ken, 1954-
Reason: Computer geeks meet criminal conspiracies in these thrillers. Though Ripper takes place in San Francisco and Restoration Game in Edinburgh and ethnic Krassnia (formerly in the USSR), they both feature youthful protagonists, plots filled with intrigue, and realistic backgrounds. -- Katherine Johnson - Little brother
Doctorow, Cory
Reason: Readers who enjoy teen-centered fiction will find both Ripper (a serial killer investigation) and Little Brother (a government conspiracy) compelling. Both books feature teens in the Bay Area who use online gaming techniques to combat the bad guys. -- Katherine Johnson - Reamde Stephenson, Neal
Reason: Multi-player on line gaming provides the background for compelling suspense in both Reamde, a complex, convoluted cyber-thriller that plays out across the globe, and Ripper, an intrigue-filled plot featuring efforts to track down a serial killer in San Francisco. -- Katherine Johnson - 1st to die
Patterson, James, 1947-
Reason: These murder mysteries features a maverick female protagonist on the trail of a serial killer in San Francisco. Teenage sleuth Amanda secretly investigates her mother's disappearance in Ripper, while an off-duty cop stalks a killer author in 1st to Die. -- Kim Burton
Read-alikes for Allende, Isabel
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Allende, Isabel
Isabel Allende draws deeply on South America's turbulent history, as well as personal experience, to craft magical multigenerational sagas, novels, short stories, and memoirs. Known for her vibrant characterization of women and her lyrically descriptive prose, Allende subtly combines the traditional with elements of the fantastic in a magical realist style. Blending the social, political, romantic, and historic, she produces engrossing stories that linger with her readers. Allende also write a series for Teens that combines adventure and magical realism with a coming-of-age journey. Start with: The House of the Spirits (Adults); City of the Beasts (Teens).
Read-alikes
- Garcia Marquez, Gabriel, 1928-2014
Reason: The works of Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez bring rich, multilayered stories in the magical realist tradition to life with evocative, lyrical prose. Where the supernatural intrudes on the real world in an entirely believable fashion, they explore love, honor, power, and faith -- universal themes with political content, often in actual historical settings. -- Katherine Johnson - De Bernieres, Louis
Reason: Louis De Bernieres and Isabel Allende share a sardonic sense of humor mixed with elements of magical realism, eccentric characterization, and plotting featuring the difficulties of love and relationships against an unstable political and military background. -- Bethany Latham - Coelho, Paulo
Reason: If you are looking for lyrical novels with elements of magical realism that may involve a physical quest that mimics a simultaneous internal quest, you may want to read the stories by Paulo Coelho and Isabel Allende. -- Rebecca Sigmon - Desai, Kiran, 1971-
Reason: These authors include sometimes surprising elements of magical realism in their reflective storytelling, as well as memorable characters. They are also lush writers, with a deep appreciation for the exploration of the senses, and making sure the reader experiences the landscapes of their books as deeply as their characters do. -- Melissa Gray - Grande, Reyna
Reason: While Isabel Allende often employs magical realist imagery and style, and Reyna Grande's work is straightforward realism, both evoke Latin American storytelling and cultural traditions in their fiction and nonfiction. Grande focuses on the immigrant experience and women's friendships, while Allende crafts novels with a variety of storylines. -- Katherine Johnson - Oyeyemi, Helen
Reason: Helen Oyeyemi and Isabel Allende write complex, intricately plotted own voices stories filled with magical realism. These stories are told by culturally diverse characters in lyrical prose, and both authors often weave social and political commentary into their atmospheric, thought- provoking novels. -- Heather Cover
7. Ferre, Rosario
Reason: Readers looking for feminist, social, and political novels from accomplished Latina storytellers will appreciate Ferré and Allende, who write in a range of fiction and nonfiction genres. Their complex, engrossing works feature evocative and lyrical writing style, memorable characters (especially vibrant women), and a strong sense of history. -- Katherine Johnson
8. Morrison, Toni, 1931-2019
Reason: Readers especially attracted to the mythic and feminist aspects of Isabel Allende may find much to appreciate in Toni Morrison, whose stories explore many of the same social issues from an African-American viewpoint. Allende's writing style is more conventional, but both authors have strong powers of description and an ability to immerse readers in the story's atmosphere. -- Katherine Johnson
9. Alvarez, Julia
Reason: Readers who are drawn to Allende's masterful storytelling voice may enjoy Julia Alvarez. She explores Latina history from a woman's point of view, and provides a vivid backdrop for social and historical themes that relate to some of Allende's. -- Katherine Johnson
Young Adult series: Alexander Cold trilogy (City of the Beasts; Kingdom of the Golden Dragon; Forest of the Pygmies)
Writings
- A long petal of the sea (Jan 2020)
- In the midst of winter (Oct 2017)
- The Japanese lover (Nov 2015)
- Ripper (Jan 2014)
- Maya's notebook (Apr 2013)
- Island beneath the sea (Apr 2010)
- Ines of my soul (Jan 2006)
- Forest of the pygmies (May 2005)
- Zorro (May 2005)
- Kingdom of the golden dragon (Apr 2004)
- City of the beasts (Nov 2002)
- Portrait in sepia (Nov 2001)
- Daughter of fortune (Oct 1999)
- The infinite plan (Mar 1994)
- The stories of Eva Luna (Jan 1991)
- Where angels glide at dawn: new stories from Latin America (Oct 1990)
- Eva Luna (Sep 1988)
- Of love and shadows (May 1987)
- Other fires: short fiction by Latin American women (Mar 1986)The house of the spirits (May 1985)
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