Isabel Allende – Author biography

Isabel Allende – Author biography

• This resource provides a concise biography of Isabel Allende, written in Spanish, tracing her life from childhood in Peru and Chile through exile, personal tragedies, and her rise as one of the most influential voices in contemporary Latin American literature.

Key features:

• Outlines Allende’s early years, family influences, and the formative role of strong female figures, especially her grandmother.
• Describes her professional background in journalism, magazine editing, and television scripting, alongside the political and social context of Chile in the 1960s and 1970s.
• Explains how the 1973 military coup, which overthrew her uncle Salvador Allende, forced her into exile in Venezuela and profoundly shaped her worldview and writing.
• Details the genesis of La casa de los espíritus, originally begun as a letter to her dying grandfather, which developed into her internationally acclaimed debut novel and established her distinctive magical-realist style.
• Highlights recurring themes in her work—memory, political violence, identity, resilience of women—and her later contributions through major novels, memoirs, the Isabel Allende Foundation, and global recognition.

Includes an accompanying worksheet to reinforce and practise key concepts.