This “spectacular... absorbing and distinguished work...is a unique achievement, both personal witness and possible allegory of the past, present, and future of Latin America” (
The
New York Times Book Review
).
The House of the Spirits
, which introduced Isabel Allende as one of the world’s most gifted storytellers, brings to life the triumphs and tragedies of three generations of the Trueba family. The patriarch Esteban is a volatile, proud man whose voracious pursuit of political power is tempered only by his love for his delicate wife Clara, a woman with a mystical connection to the spirit world. When their daughter Blanca embarks on a forbidden love affair in defiance of her implacable father, the result is an unexpected gift to Esteban: his adored granddaughter Alba, a beautiful and strong-willed child who will lead her family and her country into a revolutionary future.
One of the most important novels of the twentieth century,
is an enthralling epic that spans decades and lives, weaving the personal and the political into a universal story of love, magic, and fate.