Isabel Allende was born in Lima, Peru, in 1942 and moved to Chile as a child. She was a journalist for many years before publishing her first novel, The House of the Spirits in 1982. She is the author of eight novels, including Ines of My Soul, Daughter of Fortune, and Portrait in Sepia. She has also written a collection of stories, four memoirs, and a trilogy of children's novels. Her books have been translated into more than twenty-seven languages and have become bestsellers across four continents. In 2004 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Isabel Allende lives in California.
A heartfelt novel, powerful enough to make a dictator cry Evening Standard She can spin a tale out of a pebble and a piece of string ... the atmosphere of encroaching doom, buried treasure and broken hearts is never tragic because there is a continual sense of life's endless opulence Independent Packed with action, prodigal in invention, vivid in description and metaphor, this cleverly plotted novel is enhanced by its flowing prose and absolute assurance The Times Allende's world is both sweet and sinister, and the flamboyance and power of her vision can seduce the sourest and most literal-minded reader Daily Telegraph