Born in Lioma, Peru, her parents divorced young and she moved with her mother to Chile. Early in her career she worked for the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization in Santiago. Later she worked as a journalist for Paula magazine. The niece of the Chilean President, Salvador Allende, she was forced to flee Chile when he was assassinated during a military coup. Moving to Venezuela, Ms. Allende began writing her novel The House of the Spirits, which was later made into a movie and released in the U.S. in 1994.

Since her initial success, Ms. Allende has released several other award winning novels including: Eva Luna, Of Love and Shadows and El Plan Infinito. She has also been the recipient of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize nomination, and her novel Eva Luna was voted “One of the Year’s Best Books” by Library Journal.

Ms. Allende’s recent work Paula portrays the hardships that she faced while coping with the illness and death of her own daughter in 1991. Other new works include Aphrodite: A Memoir of Senses, Daughter of Fortune, and Portait in Sepia.