Synopsis
This autobiography from best-selling writer Isabel Allende begins in December 1991, during a period when Allende's daughter Paula became gravely ill and fell into a coma. The author began her account during the long hours at the hospital and decided to record the story of her family for her unconscious daughter in an attempt to "bring [her] back to life." As in her novels, Allende conjures up the magical and questions the gods. There are anecdotes of her youthful years, Chile's physical and political landscape, the military coup of 1973, and her family's exile.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 2002-02-01 |
| Size | | Height: | 8.0 in | | Width: | 5.5 in | | Thickness: | 1.0 in | | Weight: | 11.2 oz |
Industry Reviews
"Journalism was what Isabel Allende did in her freewheeling youth, before she discovered she could write novels....She does it wonderfully well. As Paula courageously reveals, she has everything it takes: the ear, the eye, the mind, the heart, the all-encompassing humanity."
New York Times Book Review - Suzanne Ruta (05/21/1995)
"...a painfully honest love story for a child that will bring tears to your eyes...Entirely without whimsy or sentiment...it is also the portrait of a modern mother...[Allende's] novels pale by comparison with this astonishingly revelatory piece of journalism. Here you will find concise and vivid portraits of Lebanon before Beirut blew up, of a Chilean childhood crossing the cordillera of the Andes, and of Columbia, where she was exiled...when the military junta took over Chile. Her account of that troubled time is brilliant..."
Literary Review - Nonie Niesewand
"...a memoir of devastating passion...'Paula', despite the title, is not a biography or even an account of the life of Isabel Allende's daughter. It is Allende's own autobiography, told to a daughter who has entered a limbo between life and death...The dying daughter becomes a mirror in which the mother reaffirms her reality and comes to terms with the decisions she has made as a woman and a writer...This unflinchingly honest self-portrait becomes Allende's parting gift to her daughter...it is a tribute to Allende's skill as a writer and the depth of her soul-searching that 'Paula', written on the eve of death, is immensely life-affirming. This is one of those unusual books about suffering that has no use for pity, that manages, somehow...to give much more to the reader than would have seemed possible...Embracing life and love with all her might, Allende honors the memory of Paula..."
Women's Review of Books - Ruth Behar
"The book is so full of life that it sometimes is hard to remember that it is also full of losses."
Chicago Tribune
"Allende writes here in the same style as she does in her novels: a narrative infused with magic and drama...She tells her family history alongside the history of Chile, the 'tragedy of her nation', and the years leading up to Pinochet's coup. Yet it is related at a great pace, almost like a medieval saga. This is as good as 'The House of the Spirits'..."
Good Book Guide
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