Isabel Allende: "Being a woman and being successful, they don't forgive you for that"

• Advance of Violeta, the new novel by Isabel Allende

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Forty years ago, while living in Venezuela, Isabel Allende began writing a letter to her dying grandfather about everything she had left behind in Chile after the coup. That letter ended up becoming

, the first of almost 30 novels that have made Allende one of the most widely read writers in the world. Now she returns with

(Plaza & Janés), another novel-letter that covers the conquests of women in the 20th century.

Does Violeta have something from her mother? My mom is the longest and safest love I've had in my life. We were always very close but we lived apart because she married a diplomat and was traveling, then exile came. We wrote to each other every day: first by mail, then by fax and by email. When they invented email my mom went crazy, sometimes she wrote me two or three times a day, it seemed miraculous to her. She gave me at the end of the year all the letters I had written to her and I kept them with hers, in a box per year. I have decades.

When she died, a lot of people told me to write a book about her. But I could not. I was very close and

But a character came out, Violeta, who has many things about her, although her life is much more interesting. Why? Because Violeta manages to support herself and

First from the father, then from the husband. I have always thought that if I had had economic independence I would have had an extraordinary life. The novel is a plea for free love. Violeta is a passionate and romantic woman who was born in a very conservative society in the 1920s, where women did not have the freedom you have today. Her way of thinking is quite original,

it was one of the last countries in the world to accept it.

Life was very hard for that generation. It talks about classism, lesbianism, the pill and even sterilization. Yes, because before, when the pill didn't exist, many women had their tubes tied so as not to have more children.

There were men who even demanded it, although it never crossed their minds to have a vasectomy.

It is still practiced in many places.

Violence is almost another protagonist.

The difference is that now we speak it, it does not remain hidden.

Domestic violence used to be considered an intimate matter in the home, something like religion, which facilitated tremendous abuse.

Then there was legislation on that and now at least there are legal consequences, although they are not always applied.

The woman is often accused of provoking the violence.

It's like when a woman is raped and the first thing she is asked is: what were you doing on the street at that time, why were you dressed like that? Violeta is mistreated by one of her partners, but she always comes back. foundation to help battered women who escape from a dire situation and have to hide.

They themselves, sometimes, return because there is a dependency relationship with the perpetrator.

Y

I have seen a lot. That happens to Violeta despite the fact that she is an educated woman. It takes her years to realize she's in a toxic relationship and it's only when she sees it in other people that she realizes she was there.Having been through the experience, what has it been like writing about the death of a daughter, the character of Nieves? I got the model for Nieves from my stepdaughter, Jennifer, who was a drug addict.

I lived the tragedy of addiction year after year, after year... They all died: one from an overdose, another from violence caused by drugs.

I took almost exactly the character of Nieves from Jennifer, who also gave birth to a little girl and later died.

Fortunately the girl lived and today she is fine.

Of course it's hard for me to write that death scene, but

it wasn't difficult to put myself in Violeta's shoes because I've lived it.

A novel is always a combination of memory, experience, imagination and intuition. How is your relationship with your readers? They say I have sold

, a number that escapes my imagination!

I receive a lot of correspondence, every day I receive a lot of emails, most of them in Spanish and English.

My editors have told me that the majority of readers are women between 25 and 55 years old and for a few years I have been starting to read by younger men because they teach my books in high school and in universities.

And I have to say that in 40 years of career I have never been told anything heavy or uncomfortable in any of my readings, I guess because

The truth is that I have a very partial idea of ​​my acceptance. It's like the psychiatrist who thinks everyone is crazy because everyone who goes to see him is. Speaking of those who hate his books, how do you deal with criticism? Roberto Bolaño said that you were "a writer."

people who do not like your books. The nice thing about Bolaño is that my agent asked him what book he was referring to and he replied that he would not read me for any reason. They judge without even reading for the fact of being a woman and being successful, they don't forgive that. How did you experience the Latin American boom, such a masculine phenomenon? There wasn't a single female voice in the

When

in 1982 it was almost at the tail of the

and they were quick to say that I did not belong to the

and that I was

.

Well, it doesn't matter how you qualify, but that

is true.

, but they were always silenced, silenced, published in minimal editions, without criticism, without being analyzed or taught in universities.

A total lack of respect.

That has changed. A lot.

What do you think of the success of Mariana Enríquez, Valeria Luiselli, Fernanda Melchor or Brenda Navarro?

I have immense respect for that generation of young and daring writers. I am very glad that they are making such a different type of literature and that

He published

at 40, a debut that could be considered late, why? I was a journalist, I had to go to Venezuela where I couldn't find a job and had to support my two children. The idea of ​​writing was crazy, I never formulated it. But a moment of despair came to me, around 40, when

I began to write him a letter that became

.

But she didn't even know that she was writing a novel.

It was a kind of

, to get rid of all the nostalgia for my country, to recover everything I had lost: my house, my family, my job, my friends, all my past.

And so the book came out, which was an almost instant success and gave me a voice.

But until the third book I couldn't quit my job. Did that keep success from going to your head? I had no plans to become a writer because there was no role model.

Nobody paid attention to anything that was written by any woman.

Everything was ignored.

There was no one to look at and say: I'm going to be like her. They could say: I'm going to be like José Donoso or Gabriel García Márquez. Ours was a generation that was silenced in many aspects. How do you see the new era of Boric as president of Chile? The enthusiasm of the people in the street was frozen because the pandemic came but the feelings remained there and that is why he won by a large majority, luckily. If Kast had won it would have been impossible for him to govern. You only need to see the photo of Boric's ministers to see that we are in front of

in a reasonable way, without spoiling the economy, to redistribute the wealth and benefits of the country's resources.

Everything is privatized in Chile, education, health... people live in debt.

.

I think it will be very strong for the Armed Forces to have her in Defense.

'Violeta' (Plaza and Janés) is already on sale.

You can buy it here.

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