Acclaimed Chilean Novelist Isabel Allende on Michele Bachelet, Immigration and Chile as a "Country of Poets"

by Democracy Now (reposted)

Fri, Nov 17, 2006 7:01AM

Chilean novelist Isabel Allende is a prolific writer with 15 books in just over two decades. Her works have been translated to more than 27 languages and have hit best-seller lists around the world. She joins us to discuss her latest work, "Ines of My Soul," the centuries-long struggle of the indigenous people of Chile, the significance of Chilean president Michele Bachelet, immigration and much more.

Born in Lima, Peru, in 1942, Isabel Allende traveled the world as the daughter of a prominent Chilean family. Her uncle was Chile's President, Salvador Allende. He died on another September 11th - September 11th 1973 when Augusto Pinochet seized power in a CIA-backed military coup. Afterwards, Isabel Allende's family fled to Venezuela where she continued to work as a journalist.

Her debut novel in 1982, The House of the Spirits, chronicled four generations of a Chilean family through the tumult of that country's political history. It is a history that is intertwined with Allende's own. Her latest book, "Ines of My Soul" recounts the story of Doña Inés Suárez, arguably the founding mother of Chile.

* Isabel Allende, prize-winning Chilean novelist. Her latest book is titled "Ines Of My Soul."

LISTEN ONLINE:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/17/1454233

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