Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7132 in Books
• Published on: 1994-02-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 490 pages

Synopsis
Spanning four generations, Isabel Allende's family saga is populated by a memorable, often eccentric, cast of characters. Together, men and women, spirits, the forces of nature and of history, converge in a brlliantly realised novel.

From the Back Cover
Spanning four generations, Isabel Allende's magnificent family saga is populated by a memorable, often eccentric cast of characters. Together, men and women, spirits, the forces of nature, and of history, converge in an unforgettable, wholly absorbing and brilliantly realised novel that is as richly entertaining as it is a masterpiece of modern literature.

About the Author
Isabel Allende was born in Lima, Peru. She has recently lived in Caracas, Venezuela, with her husband and two children. Her first two novels, The House of the Spirits and Of Love and Shadows are published by Black Swan. The House of the Spirits was made into a film starring Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Jeremy Irons, Winona Ryder, Vanessa Redgrave, Antonio Banderas and Keanu Reeves.

Customer Reviews

Fantastic
I have never read a book where so many characters are delved into so deeply. Allende is a wonderful story teller, and the narrative being interspersed with individual character opinions makes it all the better. I had to limit my reading every day so I would not get through it too quickly. Even if you have no interest in the Chilean revolution, this book is a must read. It's a shame that the rest of her books never quite made it up to this standard.

Clara, Clearest Clairvoyant!! Magical visitations in Isabel Allende's House!
I can still remember reading Allende's opening lines in Liverpool's Bold Street Waterstones. 'Barrabas came to us by sea, the child Clara wrote in her delicate calligraphy.' I tingled all over, bought the book and barely managed to get off the train at Bolton Station. Literary purists always gesture knowingly towards their copies of Marquez's One Hundred years of Solitude. Leave them to it. Allende was born to write this book. She centres her story on a family's experience of Pinochet's savage regime in Chile. The House of the Spirits is as the title suggests, a family saga but a saga marvellously suffused by 'other' ways of knowing about events and futures. Part of the magic of the novel is that the 'spirit' co-exists powerfully with the 'material' in an unapologetic and finally redemptive way. The epigraph by the poet Pablo Neruda says it all for me:

How much does a man live, after all?

Does he live a thousand days, or one only?

...What does it mean to say 'for ever'?

Fantastic
I absolutely loved this book! It was colourful and political, about love and family, sadness and tragedy, all wrapped into one heart-warming story. For me it was one of those books that once I started, I didn't want to do anything else but see what happened next.

Allende has become my favourite author as a result of this book. I would advise anyone to read it.