The Stories of Eva Luna by Isabel Allende

National Prize for Literature (Premio Nacional de Literatura), Chile (2010).Hans Christian Andersen Literary Award (2012).Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama (2014).Honorary Doctorate from Harvard University (2014).PEN Center Lifetime Achievement Award (2016).Anisfield-Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award (2017).Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation (2018).You can see the full list here, but a few highlights include: She writes about Chilean history and then-current events in several of her books, perhaps most poignantly in her 2003 memoir My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile (Mi País Inventado).Īllende is one of the most prominent Spanish-language authors of all time.Īllende has received dozens of awards and honorary doctorates for her writing, teaching, and contribution to literature. Isabel’s father was Salvador Allende’s cousin, and while she barely knew him, the coup and President Allende’s death had an enormous effect on her life, leading her to live in exile in Venezuela for 13 years. Isabel Allende is related to another famous Chilean, Salvador Allende, President of Chile from 1970 until he was overthrown in the military coup led by General Pinochet in 1973. When Allende was 11, her mother remarried and Allende spent the rest of her childhood in Bolivia and Lebanon. Her parents separated when she was very young, and she spent a few years of her childhood in Chile with her mother, two siblings, and grandfather. Isabel Allende Llona was born in 1942 in Peru to Chilean parents (her father was a Chilean diplomat).

The young author Allende with her mother in 1950.

The Stories of Eva Luna by Isabel Allende