Dragoste

Isabel Allende writes about love and desire. She looks at the links between life and fiction. She shares thoughts on her own love life. She adds parts of her novels, short stories, and memoirs. The book blends her thoughts with work from these texts. It suits readers drawn to love in its many forms.

Her memories span her youth through love at midlife. At five, she went to an Ursuline school in Santiago. The school expelled her for indecency. At fourteen, she read One Thousand and One Nights in secret. She lived in Beirut at the time. At thirty, she was a mother in South America. She fought for women’s freedom and for sexual change. At forty-five, she found her partner in California.

Allende sees no set age for first love. She says its force need not fade with age. Through writing, she can enter the lives of her characters. She can then share their desires with readers. For her, what she imagines can surpass what she has lived.

She has written twenty books in her career. Translations of her work span more than thirty-five languages. Her work has sold over fifty-seven million copies. She has received twelve honorary doctorates. She has also won fifty awards across more than fifteen countries. Two of her novels have become films that did well.