Product Description

The life story of Isabel Allende -- one of the world's favourite writers -- is as exotic, passionate and inspiring as one of her novels. Just three when her parents divorced, Isabel Allende was raised in her grandparents' home in Chile. She left school at 16; and married Miguel Frias at 19. She then juggled her work as a journalist, editor, advice columnist and television interviewer with looking after her two children. But when her cousin the Chilean president Salvador Allende was assassinated in 1973 in Pinochet's right-wing military coup, her life changed profoundly. It was too dangerous to stay in Chile; and she, her husband, and their two children fled to Venezuela. During her impoverished exile, she started writing 'The House of the Spirits'. Based on her memories of her family and the political upheaval in her native country, it became an international bestseller and everything changed again!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #89847 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
"Nostalgia is my vice," admits Isabel Allende in My Invented Country. A question about nostalgia propels an exploration of her past, including the complicated history and politics of Chile, where she spent the better part of her childhood. Despite her strong connection with Chile, Allende says she has been an outsider nearly all her life. Her stepfather was a diplomat, so her family moved quite frequently. However, in her travel diary Allende compares everything to Chile, her "one eternal reference" point.

"From saying goodbye so often my roots have dried up," she notes. She successfully reclaims them, however, through two channels. Allende relays anecdotes about what she calls her untraditional family--whom she has based some of her novels upon, including The House of the Spirits. Like a few of her novels, though, her own story is lost in heavy policy analysis. Interspersed among her ancestors' tales is an all-too-exhaustive report of Chile: the terrain, its people, customs and language, its heroes and villains and its government.

Allende fled Chile after the military coup on September 11, 1973. Twenty-eight years later and now living in the United States, she is haunted by this date when terrorists attack New York City and Washington, DC. Allende admits that the place she is homesick for may have never existed. In spite of that, Allende asserts that she can live and write anywhere: "I don't belong to one land, but to several, or perhaps only to the ambit of the fiction I write." The irony is that she steadfastly has "one foot in Chile and another here". --C.J. Carrillo, Amazon.com

Review
'Allende's writing is so vivid we smell the countryside, hear the sounds, see the bright birds, the scorched earth, smell and even taste the soft fruit.' The Times 'Allende has a gift for conversational writing and a sharp sense of humour!I very much enjoyed this visit to the other Chile, that half-remembered country of her imagination.' New Statesman 'Allende is incapable of telling a bad story. She writes of her own experience with a kind of wild candour. Her heroically sustained narrative, her lovingly prepared plots and surprise inventions explode in an exaltation.' Independent 'Lucid, original and expounded with an unquestionable sense of humor!part essay and part autobiography!When Allende poses sweeping general truths, she leaves room for argument!But the book gets my undivided attention when it expounds on the relationship of the author to that country of hers, invented, imaginary, fictional, to the story of her family, which is itself invented memory, and to her vocation as a narrator!It will provoke curiosity. And that is where everything begins.' LA Times

From the Publisher
My Invented Country is a memoir in which truth is most definitely stranger than fiction. Exploring the events of her life and those of the country in which she lived until the assassination of her cousin, the president Salvador Allende, in Pinochet’s military coup, Allende takes us on a highly personal tour through her homeland, bringing it to life.
In this charming book, portraits of her family and friends jostle with vivid descriptions of local customs and beliefs but through it all strides the indomitable figure of the young Isabel. Rebellious and passionate, a feminist long before she knew what feminism was, her love for (sometimes exasperation with) Chile informs every line. And her experiences make for unforgettable, often hilarious reading that no admirer of Allende’s writing will want to miss.

Customer Reviews

A Land, Richly Imagined
The past is a fascinating land in which we all dwell at one time or another, and in My Invented Country, Isabel Allende discusses her relationship with the country of her birth, Chile. She crafts a wandering, wondering work of mystical proportions; discussing the influence of her colourful family (in particular, her grandfather) and the times in which she lived as a child. There is no narrative imperative in this work but this discussion of the spirit of the Chilean people and how they've come through a veritable patchwork of governments in the last few centuries is utterly enthralling.

What falls into place around you as you read, is a rich and vibrant land which the author admits may never have even existed and may simply exist in her mind, due to her lengthy exile from Chile during the Pinochet years. But in bringing her vision of Chile to the reader, she also brings something of herself. Her writing, her imagination, her influences, her spirit. Undoubtedly an intriguing woman and an intriguing land. Read it today.

Lovers of Allende's style will not be dissapointed
I've just finished reading this book, I've read almost all of Allende's novels including Paula which is very personal and also autobiographical in nature. This book, though, is short and funny in places and takes you through Mrs Allende's life as well as gives you some insight into her character. I think to get a wider picture one has to read Paula in conjunction to this novel.

But this is not to say I didn't enjoy it, its filled with her signature descriptive narrative, in the first few pages of this book she writes such a line: "I am as old as aspirin". She takes you through the tumultuous polical history of her native country of Chilie to her present life in the United States. She also gives some insight into what it really feels like to be an immigrant, never being able to set your roots anywhere for too long, and how difficult and often isolated one can feel when trying to integrate into a new place or culture.

What makes this book so straight forward and approachable in nature is it reads almost like a travel piece. Allende takes you on a journey through Chilie from what they eat, how they dress and how they behave. She gets into the mindset of the people of the Chilie and gives you their streotypes and tries to explain why they tend to behave as they do sometimes. Its not at all offensive, on the contrary I think you'll find you will recognise many of these characteristics in alot of people. I love her for doing that. Not many writers in the West are so honest when they speak about the mannerisms or behaviour of other cultures in case they might offend some readers. Allende's however treats her readers as adults and tells it like it is. Speaking of which, she explores the whole 'political correctness' of the West and how really in some places in the world they just don't sugar coat things, which is truely refreshing.

I would highly recommend to this book as an intro to her works as its nice and short and a very easy smooth read. But my favourite is Paula as well as her fictional novel House of The Spirits. But if you're a fan of her work as I am, you'll be grateful to plunge into any of her works! Enjoy it.

Sentimental and anecdotal meander through Chilean geography and history
Full of generalisations, not much insight, not much interest. Not enough personal material to make for a real autobiography. I'm sure there are better memoirs of Chile, the Allende government and overthrow, and the experience of exile.