The Chilean author, who lives in the United States, returns to her country after six years to present her latest novel, ‘Mi nombre es Emilia del Valle.’
And she shows off her sense of humor: “Either one of them doing me the favor, Antonio Banderas or Pedro Pascal, would be fantastic.”
Chilean writer Isabel Allende (83, Lima) has not set foot on her homeland for six years—she lives in Sausalito, California—and this September, as spring approaches in the city, she returns to present her latest novel, ‘Yo soy Emilia del Valle’ (Sudamericana). It is the story of a twenty-something woman born in San Francisco, United States, a writer and journalist, who arrives in Chile to work as a reporter in the midst of the Civil War of 1891 and, in the process, discovers her identity: her father was Chilean. Chile captivates the protagonist of this novel.
Isabel Allende is also captivated, even though she has not lived in her country since 1973, following Augusto Pinochet's coup d'état. She will talk about this in this interview, where she displays her well-known wit in moving from humor to politics and the transcendental issues of human beings, without dodging questions. That's what it means to be the most widely read Spanish-language writer today. Although, at the outset, she is mistaken: I've been interviewed so much that I have nothing to say, she says at the beginning. And in that, she was wrong.
