Isabel Allende's new novel binds threads of roots and destiny

The Star

11-05-2025

A bloody civil war and the tragic death by suicide of an ousted president served as inspiration for Isabel Allende's new novel, My Name Is Emilia del Valle.
The story centres on Emilia del Valle, a young Californian journalist who is dispatched to Chile to report on the confrontation between congressmen and those loyal to President Jose Manuel Balmaceda in 1891.
'I was always curious about that civil war,' Allende, 82, said in a video interview.
'More Chileans died there than in the four years of the war against Peru and Bolivia and they killed each other like beasts.'
From her home in Belvedere, California, the Chilean-American writer said that Balmaceda's fate in Chile echoes that of her uncle, President Salvador Allende, in 1973; both were progressive leaders, faced fierce resistance from the right and Congress and died by suicide.
Salvador Allende killed himself during Gen Augusto Pinochet's coup in 1973, which established a 17-year dictatorship and left more than 40,000 victims.
To tell the story of Balmaceda in the book – available in English now – Allende was interested in a character who was neither a congressman nor a member of the government, so Emilia del Valle emerged, a curious and adventurous 25-year-old.
Fluent in Spanish with Chilean roots from her biological father (born out of wedlock), Emilia travels to Chile to report on the war – but also to find her roots.
'Despite everything that happens to her, she falls in love with the country,' said Allende, who once again intertwines California and Chile in her narrative.
'It's very easy for me to write about Chile, even though I haven't lived there for so many years.'
Allende's latest strong female protagonist is a journalist. Photo: AP
On the battlefield, Emilia meets Angelita Ayalef, a Mapuche woman who is part of the so-called 'cantineras' (bartenders), women who followed the army to feed and cure soldiers, among other functions.
'When doing research for a book, what matters are the questions,' said Allende.
'Who were these women, the cantineras? History doesn't give them a voice, they don't have personality, there are no names, but they fulfilled a function equal to that of the soldier, and they died like soldiers.'
'Twice as much effort as any man'
Growing up with an Irish Catholic mother and a stepfather of Mexican descent, Emilia is no stranger to religion and carries a Virgin of Guadalupe medal with her all the time. Emilia affectionately calls her stepfather Papo.
'It's a tribute to my own stepfather, I didn't know my father either, like Emilia, but I had a fantastic stepfather and so this is a tribute to him,' said Allende.
With love but brutal honesty, Papo says to Emilia: 'Remember, princess, that you will have to make twice as much effort as any man to get half the recognition.'
Being a woman, has Allende ever faced this?
The author recalled sending her newly completed manuscript of The House Of The Spirits to Carmen Balcells, the renowned Barcelona literary agent who championed the so-called 'boom,' or new wave of Latin American writers of the 1960s and 1970s.
Allende recalls Balcells' blunt assessment: ''This is a good novel, and I'll publish it, but that doesn't mean you're a writer. And as a woman, you're going to have to make twice as much effort as any man'. And that was the bible, because that has been my life, twice the effort to get respect, recognition for the work I do.'
Balcells is present in another way in the novel as an inspiration for the character of Paulina del Valle, a successful, autonomous and brutally direct businesswoman who is the aunt of Emilia and introduces her to Chilean high society.
Author Isabel Allende poses at her writing studio in Sausalito, California. Photo: AP
Paulina also appears in Allende's Daughter Of Fortune (1999) and Portrait In Sepia (2000).
'When Carmen read the manuscripts (of those novels) she told me 'this is me!' she recognised herself immediately,' said Allende.
Balcells passed away in 2015.
Through Emilia's eyes, Allende immerses the reader in the brutal realities of the hand-to-hand war, the cannon fires and the repression against Balmaceda's followers.
'The battles of that time were hand-to-hand, face-to-face, but fewer people died than die now, because they were killed one by one, they were not killed en masse as they are killed now,' she said.
'Today, someone in Texas pushes a button and a bomb explodes in Iraq, and it doesn't matter how many people die, they are just numbers.'
Allende dedicates the book to her brother Juan, who helped her with the historical research of the novel.
Recovering the lost memory
Although Allende is not religious, she lamented the death of Pope Francis, whom she described as a 'wonderful, simple, humble, intelligent man.'
'I adored him, not because he was pope, but because he went to revolutionise a church that was already completely old,' she said.
She also mourned the death of Peruvian Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa, whose passing sparked mixed reactions between those who celebrated him for his literary work and those who criticised his political positions, especially in his last years.
'The legacy is immortal, and I think that within literature he is a very important character,' said Allende.
'His political position, that is another story, but what remains is not his political position, what remains is the work.'
Allende said that she has not seen the upcoming The House Of The Spirits Prime Video series so she said it will be a complete surprise for her. What she does know is that her next book will be another memoir, done with the help of the extensive collection of daily letters she sent daily to her mother since she turned 16.
'Writing a memoir is much harder than a novel,' she said.
'It turns out I have forgotten 90% of what has happened to me and the 10% that I remember did not happen like that. But then when I see the letters, day by day, I recover the lost memory and I recover the emotion of the moment.'
Allende is grateful to be able to continue doing what she loves most: 'My head still works, as long as I can pay attention, remember, not repeat myself, I will be able to continue writing, but there will come a day when it will not be possible.' – AP