Editing Isabel Allende (section)

===Author===
In 1977, while in Caracas, Allende received a phone call informing her that her 99-year-old grandfather was near death, and she sat down to write him a letter, hoping to thereby "keep him alive, at least in spirit." The letter evolved into a book, ''[[The House of the Spirits]]'' (1982); this work intended to exorcise the ghosts of the [[Military dictatorship of Chile (1973–1990)|Pinochet dictatorship]]. The book was rejected by numerous Latin American publishers, but eventually published in [[Buenos Aires]]. The book soon ran to more than two dozen editions in Spanish and was translated into a score of languages. Allende was compared to [[Gabriel García Márquez]] as an author in the style known as [[magical realism]].<ref name="Review"/><ref name="levine2002">{{Cite book|last=Levine|first=Linda Gould|title=Isabel Allende|date=2002|publisher=[[Gale (publisher)|Twayne Publishers]]|isbn=978-0-8057-1689-4|location=New York|language=en|oclc=48754834|pages=114–133}}</ref>

Although Allende is often cited as a practitioner of [[magical realism]], her works also display elements of [[Latin American Boom#Post-Boom|post-Boom literature]]. Allende also holds to a very strict writing routine.<ref>''LATIN AMERICA'S SCHEHERAZADE; Drawing on dreams, myths, and memories, Chilean novelist Isabel Allende weaves fantastical tales in which reality and the absurd intersect.'' Fernando González. ''[[The Boston Globe#Magazine|The Boston Globe Magazine]]''; p. 14. 25 April 1993.</ref> She writes on a computer, working Monday to Saturday, 09:00 to 19:00. "I always start on 8 January", Allende stated, "a tradition she began in 1981 with the letter she wrote to her dying grandfather that would become ''The House of the Spirits''."<ref>'' Allende, heroine 'Ines' are kindred spirits.'' Javier Erik Olvera. ''Inside Bay Area'' (California). Bay Area Living; Home and Garden. 25 November 2006.</ref>

Allende's book ''Paula'' (1995) is a memoir of her childhood in Santiago and the years she spent in exile. It is written as an anguished letter to her daughter. In 1991 an error in Paula's medication resulted in severe brain damage, leaving her in a persistent vegetative state.<ref name="hornblower1995">{{cite magazine |last=Hornblower|first=Margot|author-link=Margot Roosevelt|date=10 July 1995 |title=Grief and Rebirth |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,983156,00.html |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140722021357/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,983156,00.html|archive-date=22 July 2014|url-status=live|magazine=Time |volume=146 |issue=2 |page=65 |access-date=2 November 2017 }}</ref> Allende spent months at Paula's bedside before learning that a hospital mishap had caused the brain damage. Allende had Paula moved to a hospital in California where she died on 6 December 1992.

Allende's novels have been translated into more than 42 languages and sold more than 77 million copies.<ref name="House">{{Cite news|url=https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/this-old-house-opened-a-lot-of-doors-for-isabel-allende/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325040607/https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/this-old-house-opened-a-lot-of-doors-for-isabel-allende/|archive-date=25 March 2020|title=This old "House" opened a lot of doors for Isabel Allende |department=Theater preview |first=Misha|last=Berson|page=H44 |date=1 June 2007|journal=[[The Seattle Times]]|publisher=[[The Seattle Times Company]]|language=en-US|access-date=25 March 2020|quote='I wrote that book exactly 25 years ago. It’s now the 25th anniversary of the book in Spanish. It opened the door for all my other books'". That is Isabel Allende talking about her breakthrough 1982 novel, "The House of the Spirits". The panoramic work chronicles the historical, mystical and the psychological forces in the life of a South American clan. And a play based on the international best-seller debuts next week [8 June 2007] in [[Seattle]].}}</ref> Her 2008 book, ''The Sum of Our Days'', is a memoir. It focuses on her life with her family, which includes her grown son, Nicolás; second husband, William Gordon; and several grandchildren.<ref name="House"/> A novel set in [[New Orleans]], ''[[Island Beneath the Sea]]'', was published in 2010. In 2011 came ''[[El cuaderno de Maya]]'' (''Maya's Notebook''), in which the setting alternates between [[Berkeley, California]], and [[Chiloé Archipelago|Chiloé]] in Chile, as well as [[Las Vegas]], [[Nevada]].