Eva Luna

The remarkable novel from the multi-million-bestselling author of The House of the Spirits and The Japanese Lover
Meet the unforgettable Eva Luna: a lover, a writer, a revolutionary and above all, a storyteller.
Eva Luna is the daughter of a professor's assistant and a snake-bitten gardener - born poor, orphaned at an early age and working as a servant. Eva is a naturally gifted and imaginative storyteller who meets people from all walks of life. Though she has no wealth, she trades her stories like currency with people who are kind to her. As she shares her stories, she introduces an eccentric cast of characters: the Lebanese émigré who takes her in, her Catholic godmother who believes in saints, a street urchin who grows up to be the leader of the guerrilla struggle, a celebrated trans cabaret star and a young refugee whose flight from postwar Europe will change Eva's life forever.
As Eva tells her story, Isabel Allende brings to life a complex South American country - the rich, the poor, the sophisticated - in a novel that celebrates the power of imagination and storytelling.
Praise for Isabel Allende's Eva Luna:
'Vibrant, colourful characters; the ordinary fused with the grotesque; a Latin American setting, tropical this time; vivid, elegant narrative. The narrator, Eva Luna, is herself a story-teller in the Allende tradition' Guardian
'An evident affection for words, compassion for the oppressed and the inarticulate, the daring ambition to draw cross-sections of whole societies . . . Allende's work glows' New York Times
'Sumptuous . . . a tale that spans forty years and moves from a surreal jungle to a modern-day urban capital where even the most apolitical are driven to risky anti-government activities' Chicago Tribune
'Allende rearranges reality with a blend of memories, mysticism and imagination' The Philadelphia Inquirer
'A remarkable novel, one in which a cascade of stories tumbled out before the reader, stories vivid and passionate and human' Washington Post
'Magnificent . . . Allende is a prodigious fabulist, weaving extraordinary tales' Publishers Weekly

Born in Peru and raised in Chile, Isabel Allende is the author of a number of bestselling and critically acclaimed books, including The House of the Spirits, Of Love and Shadows, Eva Luna, The Stories of Eva Luna, Paula, The Japanese Lover, In the Midst of Winter, A Long Petal of the Sea, The Soul of a Woman, Violeta, and The Wind Knows My Name. Her books have been translated into more than thirty-five languages and have sold more than 77 million copies worldwide. She is the recipient of the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and she divides her time between California and Chile.