Isabel Allende — top 5 books you should read
My love for literature started quite early. I was still in elementary school and was already in the habit of going to the library to borrow books. I loved to sit down and read and get carried away by the stories and characters, into new worlds and great adventures. As I grew up, so did the type of books I read. At the age of 11 I read “A Cidade dos Deuses Selvagens” by Isabel Allende. The first of many books by this writer, who unknowingly would become my favorite author ever!
Isabel Allende was born in Chile in 1942. Considered one of Latin America’s breakthrough writers, her life was marked by the dictatorship in Chile, as was her writing. Isabel Allende was born into a conservative and sexist family. At an early age she saw her father abandon the family leaving her mother alone to raise three children. This and the fact that they started to live with their grandparents, where her mother was denied any economic rights, made Isabel grow in a great fury towards male power. A feminist by heart, her writing is marked by irreverence and the construction of fighter, strong and determined female characters. Anyone who has read Isabel Allende is well aware of this characteristic of hers, the fact that her protagonists are always decisive, strong and courageous women. In a society where the role of women is still often undervalued, it is a breath of fresh air to be able to read this type of books.
Of all the books I’ve read by Isabel Allende, it’s very difficult to say which are my favorites, but if I had to choose, this would be my top 5:
The House of the Spirits (1982)
Island Beneath the Sea (2009)
The Japanese Lover (2015)
City of the Beasts (2002)
Ripper (2014)
From fictional countries where the supernatural and magic prevail, to distant lands in times of slavery, through fantastic adventures in the Amazon rainforest and espionage games that become reality. Isabel Allende gives us a little bit of everything, realism, fantastic, action, mystery and, above all, love.
