My Invented Country
A Memoir
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On Sale:
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15/04/2004
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Formats:
Trade paperback | CD
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Isabel Allende evokes the magnificent landscapes of her country; a charming, idiosyncratic Chilean people with a violent history and an indomitable spirit, and the politics, religion, myth, and magic of her homeland that she carries with her even today.
The book circles around two life-changing moments. The assassination of her uncle Salvador Allende Gossens on September 11, 1973, sent her into exile and transformed her into a literary writer. And the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, on her adopted homeland, the United States, brought forth an overdue acknowledgment that Allende had indeed left home. My Invented Country, mimicking the workings of memory itself, ranges back and forth across that distance between past and present lives. It speaks compellingly to immigrants and to all of us who try to retain a coherent inner life in a world full of contradictions.
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Author Extras
Reading Guides:
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Critical Praise for
My Invented Country
“Charming and entertaining … some of the loveliest writing is about her maternal Grandfather … the picture of him that she creates in these pages is full-bodied and affecting.”
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New York Times Book Review
“Charming and entertaining.”
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New York Times Book Review
“A sentimental, funny, reflective journey …. [Allende] will make you laugh with her irreverence and sting you with pangs of nostalgia.”
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Miami Herald
“This is an interior travelogue, not so much a trip through Chiles as a trip though this supreme storyteller’s memory of it …. Allende’s ribald sense of humor, her bite, her self-deprecation and her sense of the absurd are in fine form here.”
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Rocky Mountain News
“Isabel Allende [is] surely one of the most graceful and yet haunting writers alive.”
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“A poetically evocative, discursive rumination that meanders like a hand cut trail through a thickly brambled forest … A fascinating walkabout.”
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Boston Globe
“Throughout, Allende’s writing is beautifully descriptive, with eloquent turns of phrase and vivid metaphors.”
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Boston Globe
“The book is a delight…. page after page of wonderful stories …. by turns Allende is witty, flirtations and even coy, often achieving such a level of intimacy that the reader imagines hearing the tales over a private diner.”
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“At every bend [Allende] delights us with unexpected humor.”
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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“A delicious exploration.”
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Orlando Sentinel
“Dazzling as a kaleidoscope: an artful tumbling and knocking that throws light and reveals strange depths.”
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Kirkus Reviews
“Intimate, rambling, imaginative … [Allende] describes with characteristic beauty and simplicity the landscape from the desert of the north to the frozen lands of Tierra del Fuego … [and] gives many insights into the novelists creative process … with honesty, wit and poetic flair.”
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Richmond Times-Dispatch
“[Allende’s] work is filled with strong and strongly feeling women. This book reveals such a woman, reviewing her life, her work, and her country, with honesty, wit, and poetic flair.”
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Richmond Times-Dispatch
[Allende’s] glimmering and audacious memoir … is riveting in its frankness and compassion, and her account of why and how she became a writer is profoundly moving.”
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Booklist
“Queer and colorful anecdotes of the Allende clan, many of which will be familiar to loyal readers of Allende’s work, succeed in making MY INVENTED COUNTY come alive … Magnificent tales of life in the old country.”
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Chicago Tribune
“[MY INVENTED COUNTRY] is like a painting, a collage of stories and images, infused with the same magic, politics and poetry of her fiction … It is a fascinating insight into the mind of Allende, full of humor and passion.:
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Globe and Mail (Toronto)
“Poignant … Allende’s keen intelligence and lively prose keep readers wishing for more.”
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San Diego Union-Tribune
“Riveting in its frankness and compassion, … [Allende’s] account of why and how she became a writer is profoundly moving.”
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Booklist
“Offers a moving portrait of [Allende’s] native Chile and, by looking back on her youth, family, and country’s history, considers how Chile has shaped her writing.”
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Library Journal
“A stunningly intimate memoir …. Allende is that rare writer whose understanding of story matches her mastery of language.”
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Entertainment Weekly
“Marvelous … Allende’s love for Chile is so evident and eloquent that many readers will consider packing their bags and booking the next flight to Santiago.”
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BookPage
“Intriguing elements of the author’s captivating history.”
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Publishers Weekly
“A non-fiction masterpiece ... PAULA is a breathtaking tour de force.”
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Buffalo News
“Spellbinding.... in flawlessly rich prose she shares with us her most intimate feelings.”
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Washington Post Book World
“The narrative magic that thundered through Allende’s first novel, THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS, triumphs here too ... Vibrant with strange lands, rich lives, and grand characters, pulsating with an almost unbearable love of words.”
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Miami Herald
“Beautiful and heart-rending ... Memoir, autobiography, epicedium, perhaps even some fiction: they are all here, and they are all quite wonderful.”
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Los Angeles Times
“A deeply affecting tale, written in the rich, luminous prose typical of Allende’s novels...Highly recommended.”
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Library Journal
“Portrait in Sepia is both an intimate examination of the inner lives of a woman and her family and a large canvas across which many people parade and on which momentous events are played out. Its romantic elements - which are to be found in its language as well as it sentiments - are counterbalanced by its shrewd, uncompromising view of those people and events. … Portrait in Sepia is the best book Allende has published in the United States since her splendid first novel of nearly two decades ago, The House of the Spirits.”
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Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World
“With this novel Allende proves that, as a master storyteller, she’s still at the top of her game.”
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San Francisco Chronicle
“Isabel Allende has once again created a riveting saga … Portrait in Sepia is rich with color and emotion and packed with intriguing characters. With this novel Allende proves that, as a master storyteller, she’s still at the top of her game.”
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San Francisco Chronicle
“Allende’s enchanting historical universe keeps expanding and Portrait in Sepia is a new galactic jewel.”
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Chicago Tribune
“A vision ..rich in tones, shadows and light. … Allende’s eloquently layered descriptions breathe life into her characters.”
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People magazine
“A storyteller of resounding wit and gusto. … PORTRAIT is allusive, sensuous, often blisteringly atmospheric and turbulent with secrets and self-discovery …[it] moves, thrills and delights.”
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Miami Herald
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