Eva Luna by Isabel Allende

[Louise, Group Founder]

Our April Group read is Eva Luna* byIsabel Allende

*Note: The Stories of Eva Luna is not the same thing, but a later collection of short stories.


Description (from Wikipedia)
Eva Luna is a novel written by Chilean novelist Isabel Allende in 1987 and translated from Spanish to English by Margaret Sayers Peden. Eva Luna takes us into the life of the eponymous protagonist, an orphan who grows up in an unidentified country in South America. While the country's political history, traced through several decades of the mid-20th century, bears many similarities to Chile (the author's original nationality), the geography and social context of the story depict a society more similar to Venezuela (where she was exiled for over a decade).

The novel takes us through Eva Luna's journey though life so far and her ability to tell stories, interweaving Eva's personal story with the broader geopolitical turmoil of Latin America during the 1950s – 1980s.


Isabel Allende (again from Wikipedia)
Isabel Allende is a Chilean-American writer.Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the "magic realist" tradition, is famous for novels such as The House of the Spirits (La casa de los espíritus, 1982) and City of the Beasts (La ciudad de las bestias, 2002), which have been commercially successful. Allende has been called "the world's most widely read Spanish-language author". In 2004, Allende was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2010, she received Chile's National Literature Prize. President Barack Obama awarded her the 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Allende's novels are often based upon her personal experience and pay homage to the lives of women, while weaving together elements of myth and realism. She has lectured and toured many American colleges to teach literature. Fluent in English as a second language, Allende was granted United States citizenship in 1993, having lived in California with her American husband since 1989.



I'm away at the moment stealing the odd moment of internet when I can get it, but will join in discussion more fully when I get back. I hope you enjoy the book, I am looking forward to reading it.

[Anita]

I have heard of this author and have her on my to-read shelf, though not necessarily this book. But, I'm happy to read her with the group! Just finishing up a couple of catch up reads and I'll get into it. Anyone else start it, or have any initial thoughts about the book or author?

[Paula W]

Anita wrote: "I have heard of this author and have her on my to-read shelf, though not necessarily this book. But, I'm happy to read her with the group! Just finishing up a couple of catch up reads and I'll get ..."

I plan to start tomorrow, hopefully. I am currently reading 2 other books, so I might as well start a third one!

[Anita]

I finally started this. I'm still really early in, but the silly humor that's slipped in kind of reminds me of One Hundred Years of Solitude