Isabel Allende offers readers a look inside her creative process in “La parola magica. Una vita scritta,” published by Feltrinelli in a translation by Elena Liverani. Part autobiography and part masterclass, the book explores why writing has become both a discipline and a necessity for the author of “The House of the Spirits.”
Allende says that every year since 1981 she has sat down at her desk on January 8 to begin a new book, out of discipline and, she adds, superstition. On that date in 1981, she received a call telling her that her grandfather was dying in Chile. She began writing him a letter, which became “The House of the Spirits.”
“Writing is like meditating,” Allende says in the book. In solitude, she recalls and hears voices, and sometimes feels visited by spirits—or perhaps muses. She describes writing as the world that defines her and says that what she does not write, she forgets.
Through an intimate account of her work, Allende shares its rituals, challenges, mistakes and successes, alongside the difficulties and joys of her life. The book considers writing as a way to listen to memory, confront pain and bring order to life’s disorder.
Allende was born in Lima in 1942 and lived in Chile until 1973, later residing in Venezuela and the United States, where she lives. Her books have been translated into more than 42 languages and have sold over 80 million copies worldwide.
Sources: ANSA Cultura.