Живите представители на четири поколения, сенките на предците, духовете, излезли от семейните предания - всички те обитават голямата къща, за която ни разказва най-четената днес латиноамериканска писателка Исабел Алиенде.
Книгата е първа част от трилогия, включваща още романите: "Дъщеря на съдбата" и "Портрет в сепия".

"Bestseller" internacional y muy admirado clasico de la literatura latinoamericana, la trascendental novela de Isabel Allende cuenta la historia epica de la numerosa y turbulenta familia Trueba de Chile, con su patriarca angustiado y sus mujeres clarividentes, trazando sus vidas desde los fines del siglo pasado, hasta los dias violentos del golpe que derroco al gobierno de Salvador Allende en 1973. En" La casa de los espiritus," Allende combina lo supernatural con lo real en una version sumamente personal de realismo magico. Es raro, el caso, en que una primera novela lanza a su autora tan repentinamente al foro internacionales.

General Fiction, Fictional Novel

¿Quién no conoce al Zorro, el astuto y travieso enmascarado? Lo que no sabíamos -- de cómo surgió el héroe -- se resuelve en estas páginas, quenos revelan el misterio de su doble personalidad. Aquí re-encontramos a su amigo Bernardo, su corcel, Tornado, su prodigioso látigo, la Z con que firma sus hazañas y mucho más.

Nacido en 1795 en la California hispana, Diego de la Vega está atrapado entre dos mundos. Su padre es un heroico militar convertido en próspero hacendado, su madre es una valiente guerrera indígena y su abuela materna es la sabia chamán de su tribu. Del primero, Diego aprende las virtudes de un hidalgo, desde esgrima hasta el arte de hacerse obedecer, mientras su madre y su abuela lo inician en las tradiciones indígenas y el conocimiento de la naturaleza y la magia. Junto a su inseparable amigo Bernardo vive aventuras enla niñez y se da cuenta de las injusticias que soportan los indios a mano de los colonos europeos.

Diego se hace hombre en Barcelona, donde su padre lo manda a estudiar, justamente cuando España, ocupada por las tropas de Napoleón, soporta una cruenta guerra. Le toca de todo, desde duelos a muerte hasta enamorarse a primera vista, enrolarse en una sociedad secreta, huir con una tribu de gitanos, ser secuestrado por piratas y, sobre todo, enfrentarse al hombre que habrá de ser su peor enemigo. Por ultimo regresa a California a reclamar la hacienda donde nació e impartir justicia, luchando por los indefensos. Así, entre el Viejo y el Nuevo Mundo se forma el carácter del más legendario y romántico de los heroes.

When Isabel Allende's daughter, Paula, became gravely ill and fell into a coma, the author began to write the story of her family for her unconscious child. In the telling, bizarre ancestors appear before our eyes; we hear both delightful and bitter childhood memories, amazing anecdotes of youthful years, the most intimate secrets passed along in whispers. With Paula , Allende has written a powerful autobiography whose straightforward acceptance of the magical and spiritual worlds will remind readers of her first book, The House of the Spirits .

En Eva Luna , su tercera novela, Isabel Allende recupera su país a través de la memoria y la imaginación. La cautivadora protagonista de esta historia constituye un nostálgico álter ego de la autora, que se llama a sí misma «ladrona de historias» precisamente porque en las historias radica el secreto de la vida y el mundo. Novela de hondo perfil humano, Eva Luna funde el destino individual con el colectivo mediante una fulgurante prosa de carácter épico. Sin duda, una de las mejores obras de la literatura latinoamericana de los últimos años.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The House of the Spirits, this epic novel spanning decades and crossing continents follows two young people as they flee the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War in search of a place to call home.
In the late 1930s, civil war grips Spain. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border. Among them is Roser, a pregnant young widow, who finds her life intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her deceased love. In order to survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of them desires.
Together with two thousand other refugees, they embark on the SS Winnipeg, a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda, to Chile: “the long petal of sea and wine and snow.” As unlikely partners, they embrace exile as the rest of Europe erupts in world war. Starting over on a new continent, their trials are just beginning, and over the course of their lives, they will face trial after trial. But they will also find joy as they patiently await the day when they will be exiles no more. Through it all, their hope of returning to Spain keeps them going. Destined to witness the battle between freedom and repression as it plays out across the world, Roser and Victor will find that home might have been closer than they thought all along.
A masterful work of historical fiction about hope, exile, and belonging, A Long Petal of the Sea shows Isabel Allende at the height of her powers.

In one of the most important and beloved Latin American works of the twentieth century, Isabel Allende weaves a luminous tapestry of three generations of the Trueba family, revealing both triumphs and tragedies. Here is patriarch Esteban, whose wild desires and political machinations are tempered only by his love for his ethereal wife, Clara, a woman touched by an otherworldly hand. Their daughter, Blanca, whose forbidden love for a man Esteban has deemed unworthy infuriates her father, yet will produce his greatest joy: his granddaughter Alba, a beautiful, ambitious girl who will lead the family and their country into a revolutionary future.
The House of the Spirits is an enthralling saga that spans decades and lives, twining the personal and the political into an epic novel of love, magic, and fate.

In this heartfelt memoir, Isabel Allende reconstructs the painful reality of her own life in the wake of tragic loss—the death of her daughter, Paula. Recalling the past thirteen years from the daily letters the author and her mother, who lives in Chile, wrote to each other, Allende bares her soul in a book that is as exuberant and full of life as its creator. She recounts the stories of the wildly eccentric, strong-minded, and eclectic tribe she gathers around her that becomes a new kind of family. Throughout, Allende shares her thoughts on love, marriage, motherhood, spirituality and religion, infidelity, addiction, and memory. Here, too, are the amazing stories behind Allendes books, the superstitions that guide her writing process, and her adventurous travels. Ultimately, The Sum of Our Days offers a unique tour of this gifted writers inner world and of the relationships that have become essential to her life and her work. Narrated with warmth, humor, exceptional candor, and wisdom, The Sum of Our Days is a portrait of a contemporary family, bound together by the love, fierce loyalty, and stubborn determination of a beloved, indomitable matriarch.

Magic realism, at its best, should appear extrtaordinary, yet somehow believable. Allende's portrayal of the interesting lives of certain members of her family, is so convincing, that their connection with the other world is almost treated like a debilitating defect, a characterisitic that the family accept, yet at the same time is a little ashamed of. The playing down of such traits (if true, and of this I am still unsure) makes the logically impossible appear real. The story centre's on the lives of three generations of Truebas. At it's heart the book attempts to show, that peoples paths are predetermined and any desire to change what is preordained is both futile and destructive. Trueba is a man against the world. He is a self made man, who believes in order. The book insinuates that being a self made man, he is more concerned about others' perception of his family, than of his family's wellbeing, however, one gets the distinct impression throughout that Trueba believes that what he is doing is right. Battles are fought on every front, and ultimately, he fails in all of these, bar the financial struggle, the vanquishing of which he achieves in his youth. The life of the family is set against the political developments in the unnamed country, which we all assume to be Chile and in particular two different takes on the onset of socialism. Trueba, beleives that his form of conservative pragmatism is to be maintained, whilst almost all members of his family become aware of the social injustice that is preserved through the maintenance of the status quo. This conflict is only reconciled at the end of the book. It is an enlightening and ultimately comforting read, that convincingly illuminates the destructive force that radical ideology can have on a family.

夏娃·鲁娜的故事集

From Salman Rushdie, one of the great writers of our time, comes a spellbinding work of fiction that blends history, mythology, and a timeless love story. A lush, richly layered novel in which our world has been plunged into an age of unreason, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights is a breathtaking achievement and an enduring testament to the power of storytelling.
In the near future, after a storm strikes New York City, the strangenesses begin. A down-to-earth gardener finds that his feet no longer touch the ground. A graphic novelist awakens in his bedroom to a mysterious entity that resembles his own sub–Stan Lee creation. Abandoned at the mayor’s office, a baby identifies corruption with her mere presence, marking the guilty with blemishes and boils. A seductive gold digger is soon tapped to combat forces beyond imagining.
Unbeknownst to them, they are all descended from the whimsical, capricious, wanton creatures known as the jinn, who live in a world separated from ours by a veil. Centuries ago, Dunia, a princess of the jinn, fell in love with a mortal man of reason. Together they produced an astonishing number of children, unaware of their fantastical powers, who spread across generations in the human world.
Once the line between worlds is breached on a grand scale, Dunia’s children and others will play a role in an epic war between light and dark spanning a thousand and one nights—or two years, eight months, and twenty-eight nights. It is a time of enormous upheaval, in which beliefs are challenged, words act like poison, silence is a disease, and a noise may contain a hidden curse.
Inspired by the traditional “wonder tales” of the East, Salman Rushdie’s novel is a masterpiece about the age-old conflicts that remain in today’s world. Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights is satirical and bawdy, full of cunning and folly, rivalries and betrayals, kismet and karma, rapture and redemption.

<p align="left">An orphan raised in Valpara&#237;so, Chile, by a Victorian spinster and her rigid brother, young, vivacious Eliza Sommers follows her lover to California during the Gold Rush of 1849 -- a danger-filled quest that will become a momentous journey of transformation. In this rough-and-tumble world of panhandlers and prostitutes, immigrants and aristocrats, Eliza will discover a new life of freedom, independence, and a love greater than any ever dreamed.</p>

In the late 1930s, civil war grips Spain. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border. Among them is Roser, a pregnant young widow, who finds her life intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her deceased love. In order to survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of them desires.
Together with two thousand other refugees, they embark on the SS Winnipeg, a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda, to Chile: “the long petal of sea and wine and snow.” As unlikely partners, they embrace exile as the rest of Europe erupts in world war. Starting over on a new continent, their trials are just beginning, and over the course of their lives, they will face trial after trial. But they will also find joy as they patiently await the day when they will be exiles no more. Through it all, their hope of returning to Spain keeps them going. Destined to witness the battle between freedom and repression as it plays out across the world, Roser and Victor will find that home might have been closer than they thought all along.
A masterful work of historical fiction about hope, exile, and belonging, A Long Petal of the Sea shows Isabel Allende at the height of her powers.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the author of The House of the Spirits, this epic novel spanning decades and crossing continents follows two young people as they flee the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War in search of a place to call home.

"One of the most richly imagined portrayals of the Spanish Civil War to date, and one of the strongest and most affecting works in [Isabel Allende's] long career."--The New York Times Book Review

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Esquire * Good Housekeeping * Parade

In the late 1930s, civil war grips Spain. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border. Among them is Roser, a pregnant young widow, who finds her life intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her deceased love. In order to survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of them desires.

Together with two thousand other refugees, Roser and Victor embark on the SS Winnipeg, a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda, to Chile: "the long petal of sea and wine and snow." As unlikely partners, the couple embraces exile as the rest of Europe erupts in world war. Starting over on a new continent, they face trial after trial, but they will also find joy as they patiently await the day when they might go home. Through it all, their hope of returning to Spain keeps them going. Destined to witness the battle between freedom and repression as it plays out across the world, Roser and Victor will find that home might have been closer than they thought all along.

A masterful work of historical fiction about hope, exile, and belonging, A Long Petal of the Sea shows Isabel Allende at the height of her powers.

Praise for A Long Petal of the Sea

"Both an intimate look at the relationship between one man and one woman and an epic story of love, war, family, and the search for home, this gorgeous novel, like all the best novels, transports the reader to another time and place, and also sheds light on the way we live now."--J. Courtney Sullivan, author of Saints for All Occasions

"This is a novel not just for those of us who have been Allende fans for decades, but also for those who are brand-new to her work: What a joy it must be to come upon Allende for the first time. She knows that all stories are love stories, and the greatest love stories are told by time."--Colum McCann, National Book Award-winning author of Let the Great World Spin

Isabel Allende transports us to a Latin American country in the grip of a military dictatorship, where Irene Beltran, an upperclass journalist, and Francisco Leal, a photographer son of a Marxist professor together discover a hideous crime. They also discover how far they dare go in search of the truth in a nation of terror . . . and how very much they risk. "From the Paperback edition."