A Conversation with Isabel Allende - 28:28

A Conversation With Best-Selling Author Isabel Allende

Building Bridges had a rare opportunity to sit down with one of the most
widely read writers in the world, Isabel Allende, on the occasion of the
paperback release of her bestseller “Island Beneath The Sea”. Allende
discusses her novel, which powerfully evokes historical events that
rocked the late 18th century. She discusses the enthralling, blood-chilling,
and heart-breaking story that connects the links between the American
Revolution, the French Revolution, the revolt of the Haitian slaves led by
Toussaint Louverture , the sale of Louisiana to the U.S, & the rising
influence of the Abolition movement. Allende provided insight into her
politics & its creative expression through her writing. She juxtaposes slave
rebellion & the quest for self-determination of past decades with the
continuing reality of various nation’s imperialist designs, and the still
catastrophic results for the world’s peoples.

Allende also spoke of her painful recollections the death of her cousin ,
Chile’s socialist Pres. Salvador Allende, who died in a coup engineered
by General Augusto Pinchot, leading to years of fascist rule which deeply
influenced the core of her writings. Similarly her desire for the exhumation
of Salvator Allende to determine the exact manner of his death, as are her
writings, are a quest for historic reclamation & social rectification.

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