She reveals that Clara represents her own grandmother: she also had the gift of being clairvoyant and communicating with all the spirits that entered her home by way of a three-legged table and tarot cards. In this case, both are developed successfully because we are introduced and weaned on to the family first and then become involved in their plight as gradually as they do. Which is really quite cool, because I don’t read enough fiction set in South America, by South American authors.

The names Nívea, Clara, Blanca, and Alba are more or less synonyms, and this is mentioned as a family tradition. Some of the characters' names are significant, particularly the women's names, which often indicate the personalities of the characters.The novel has won several awards worldwide, including Best Novel of the Year (Chile, 1983), Author of the Year and Book of the Year (Germany, 1984), Grand Prix D’Evasion (France, 1984), Best Novel (Mexico, 1985), Point de Mire (Belgium, 1985), XV Premio Internazionale I Migliori Dell”Anno (Italy, 1987), Best Foreign Novel (Portugal, 1987), Books to Remember Award, American Library Association (USA, 1996), and The New York Public Library (2000). However, she dies by accidental poisoning while he is working in the mines, a cruel stroke of fate that hardens his heart. Knowing that Daughter of Fortune and Portrait of Sepia make up a trilogy leading up to Los Espiritus, whenever I reread these books every few years or so, they will have to be read in succession, creating an epic family saga spanning nearly 200 years. I find myself in the unusual and awkward position of having to “defend” my novel The House of the Spirits that risks being banned from a high school in Boone, North Carolina. Allende even includes short passages rendered in the first-person from Esteban’s point of view; these provide key insights into events only Esteban witnesses, as well as insights into Esteban himself.

This movement provides the narrative energy which draws the reader into Allende's universe, and sustains the 'good story' for which she has been universally acclaimed. Isabel Allende is a renowned Chilean author known for her captivating storytelling and magical realism. In 2014, President Barack Obama awarded Allende the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, and in 2018 she received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation. Clara is set-apart from the outset through her talent for clairvoyance and her prediction of the death of her sister (also fiancee of the central male character, Esteban Trueba), Rosa.I found this portrayal of all the different sides of Esteban Trueba extremely effective at gaining my sympathy. Daunted by all the names and the massive paragraphs, I was unsure if I would ever get comfortable in this story. In 1973, after the country’s first Marxist president (and her father’s cousin), Salvador Allende, was overthrown by army general Augusto Pinochet, the author herself was forced to flee to Venezuela.

As the years pass, however, adhering to the higher class norms becomes harder as both family and society crumble around the Del Valle/Trueba clan. She reflects on how she does not want to live her life with anger or hatred—instead, she wishes to move forward and be happy. December 2005) "House of the Spirits: Misfire–Bille August Directs All-Star (Miscast)," Archived 1 November 2014 at the Wayback Machine EmanuelLevy. Jamie stays involved right up until the end and plays an important role, but Nicolas is put on a bus well before the end. She grows up amidst the chaos of the revolution, witnessing the imprisonment and torture of her loved ones.Though the novel has never been officially banned, it has faced several challenges in schools since the time of its publication in 1982, often being characterized as “pornagraphic”, “immoral” and “defaming the Catholic faith”. The novel was rejected by several Spanish-language publishers before being published in Buenos Aires in 1982. In The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, we are introduced to the Trueba family, whose lives are deeply intertwined with the political and social upheavals of their country.