In the middle of a snowstorm in Brooklyn, 60-year-old human rights scholar Richard Bowmaster hits the car of Evelyn Ortega, a young, undocumented immigrant from Guatemala. What at first seems just a small inconvenience takes a far more serious turn when Evelyn turns up at the professor's house seeking help. At a loss, the professor asks his tenant Lucia Maraz, a 62-year-old lecturer from Chile, for her advice. These three very different people are brought together in a story that moves from present-day Brooklyn to Guatemala in the recent past to 1970s Chile and Brazil, sparking the beginning of a long overdue love story between Richard and Lucia.
Isabel Angélica Allende Llona (Lima, Perú; 2 de agosto de 1942) es una escritora chilena con nacionalidad estadounidense, de ascendencia hispano-portuguesa y nacida en Perú. Desde 2004 es miembro de la Academia Estadounidense de las Artes y las Letras. Obtuvo el Premio Nacional de Literatura de su país en 2010. La venta total de sus libros alcanza 73 millones de ejemplares y sus obras han sido traducidas a 42 idiomas. Es considerada como la escritora viva más leída del mundo de la lengua española.
Sobrina y ahijada del expresidente chileno Salvador Allende (1970 - 1973), comenzó su carrera literaria como periodista. Tras el la muerte de su tío en el golpe militar de Chile en 1973 y el derrocamiento del gobierno de coalición, Isabel Allende abandonó Chile y se refugió en Venezuela. Su primera novela, *La casa de los espíritus* (1985), que surgió directamente de su exilio, se convirtió en un éxito de ventas y crítica mundial. A menudo entreteje elementos de mito y realismo, o lo que se conoce como "realismo mágico". Sus novelas a veces se basan en su propia infancia y experiencias vitales.
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Isabel Allende was born on 2 August 2 1942 in Lima, Peru. The niece and goddaughter of Salvador Allende, the former president of Chile from 1970 to 1973, she started her writing career as a journalist. Several months after her uncle's assassination and the overthrow of Chile's coalition government in 1973, Allende left Chile and found refuge in Venezuela. Her first novel, The House of the Spirits (1985), which arose directly out of her exile, became a worldwide bestseller and critical success. She often weaves together elements of myth and realism, or what is known as "magic realist." Her novels are sometimes based on her own childhood and life experiences. Allende has been called "the world's most widely read Spanish-language author."
