The opus detailed their family saga in both good times and bad, reflecting on how the same mistakes repeated themselves through the generations. La Casa de Los Espiritus is a sweeping epic that spans three generations of Chilean women- Clara, Blanca, and Alba Del Valle Trueba- from post World War I up until the Pinochet coup which overthrew the Allende government (Isabel's uncle) in 1973. Handed down this gift, Allende admits that she has had a number of meaningful dreams over the years that have influenced both her writing and family life. 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. Recently, I completed Allende's memoir The Sum of Our Days. Allende's writing is exceptional in both languages. In college, I was fortunate that La Casa de los Espiritus was required reading for one of my classes, so I read the prose a second time in Spanish.

I remember how the first line 'Barrabas came to us from the sea' left me captivated and eager to read on. Through the eyes of a woman whose unforgettable passion, determination and sense of humour will carry her through a lifetime of upheaval, Isabel Allende once more brings us an epic that is both fiercely inspiring and deeply emotional.House of the Spirits started my love affair with Isabel Allende's writing twenty years ago. Bearing witness to a century of history, it is a life shaped by the fight for women's rights, the rise and fall of tyrants and, ultimately, not one but two pandemics. Told in the form of a letter to someone Violeta loves above all others, this is the story of a hundred-year life – of devastating heartbreak and passionate affairs, poverty and wealth, terrible loss and immense joy. The ripples of the Great War are still being felt, even as the Spanish flu arrives on the shores of her South American homeland almost at the moment of her birth. From the start, her life is marked by extraordinary events. Violeta comes into the world on a stormy day in 1920, the first daughter in a family of five boisterous sons. 'A new novel by Isabel Allende is always a treat' DAILY MAIL 'A moving exploration of both the pain and the freedom of being an outsider' NEW STATESMAN Gripping from start to finish' DAILY TELEGRAPH THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING NOVEL FROM LITERARY LEGEND ISABEL ALLENDE

La casa degli spiriti by Isabel Allende