The House Of The Spirits

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In The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, we are introduced to the Trueba family, whose lives are deeply intertwined with the political and social upheavals of their country. In 1973, after the country’s first Marxist president (and her father’s cousin), Salvador Allende, was overthrown by army general Augusto Pinochet, the author herself was forced to flee to Venezuela. Allende's works often explore themes of love, family, and social justice, and her richly imagined characters and vivid prose have earned her a dedicated global following. Which is really quite cool, because I don’t read enough fiction set in South America, by South American authors.

It is a point about what social conflict can do to a country – where a break-down of understanding between people can lead to a situation in which common humanity is forgotten. Both struggle with these kinds of relations, as they figure out how to create their own public and private identities while sharing links to people whose philosophies or actions disagree with theirs.

Allende's very popular novels have attracted both critical approval and opprobrium, often at the expense of genuine analysis. It is not until later, after great tragedy, that she takes the role of helper/servant instead of dreamy bystander.

Faint shelfwear to book and jacket, slight browning to pages, otherwise a fine copy of the 1st UK edition. Svich also wrote an English language version of the play which won the 2011 American Theatre Critics Association Primus Prize for its production at Denver Center Theatre Company in 2010. the depiction of family, love, bloodlines, sorrow, magic, mortality, hatred, bigotry, politics, uprising, poverty, wealth, power here.

His realization that he desires the love of his family and peace in his country leads to a pivotal change in his character. Upon arriving at Tres Marías for the first time, Blanca immediately befriends a young boy named Pedro Tercero, who is the son of her father's foreman.