Born in Peru and raised in Chile, 79-year-old Isabel Allende has authored 26 books, including The House of the Spirits, A Long Petal of the Sea and Paula (a memoir about the death of her daughter). She fled Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile to live in exile in Venezuela, later moving to the United States. She’s the god-daughter and neice of Salvador Allende, Chile’s first democratically elected socialist president, who was killed in the 11 September 1973 military coup, led by General Augusto Pinochet. Her books have been translated into more than 42 languages and sold over 75 million copies worldwide. Allende lives in California.

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