That collapse of accountability is one that figures strongly in her memories, both political and personal.Īllende spoke of the machismo that marked her childhood and that looms large in each of the three main characters’ lives. Salvador Allende, her distant relative, was murdered in the coup that would bring the Pinochet regime to power for 17 years. She later realized that the book was about absolute power with impunity. She was obsessed with the story and could not understand why: There was no slavery in Chile, no uprising. 'Island Beneath the Sea,' for example, is a novel about the Haitian slave revolt.

But then the book taps into something else, or a reader points something out, and I realize it’s about something that’s been important to me all my life.” “Often, I think I’m writing about something. But she often doesn’t know what she’s really writing about until after she’s finished and the book goes out into the world. And through their interactions with each other, each of them begins to heal.Īllende begins all of her books in the literal winter: January 8, to be precise. That proves true for the three characters in the novel: Chilean writer and researcher Lucia, NYU professor Richard, and Guatemalan refugee Evelyn. The summer is always waiting beneath the surface.' She had divorced her husband of 28 years her beloved editor, three best friends, and even her dog had recently died. When he first reached out, she said, she was in a deep emotional winter.

Her new beau choked on his ravioli but recovered admirably and is now in the process of selling his home and moving cross-country to be with her. 'If somebody had asked me that, I would have run away,' she said incredulously. When they finally met, she asked him what his intentions were over lunch. He wrote to her every morning and every evening for five months. In a case of life imitating art, Allende was contacted by a man who had heard her on the radio – and disagreed with what she had to say. 'In the Midst of Winter' depicts a late-life love affair between two academics in their 60s. Most recently, some of that fun began after another public radio interview. “I want to relax and have fun, for God’s sake.”

But after all that hard work: “I’m 75 years old,” she said. This book is her 23rd, spanning a 50-year history. She brought that sense of humor back to Seattle for a conversation with Bill Radke following the publication of her latest book, 'In the Midst of Winter.' I looked like an extra in the Cirque du Soleil,” she laughed. It looked like a butterfly, she lovingly remembered, and she flew all the way back to the city to try it on. Isabel Allende’s history with Seattle began with a dress.

Isabel allende in the midst of winter