Interview

Talking With
ISABEL ALLENDE

Writing letters provides the source material for many of Isabel Allende’s books. Her first internationally acclaimed bestseller, THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS, began as a letter to her 99-year-old grandfather. Her memoir, PAULA, recounting her family’s history, was written as Allende sat at her dying daughter’s bedside. Now, 13 years later, THE SUM OF OUR DAYS is a letter to Paula, updating her on what’s been happening in the family since she’s been gone.

“I write a letter to my mother every single day. It’s like keeping a journal. When I decided to write this memoir, I went to the letters, and I started reading them.” She marked the highlights, choosing those events that could read like stories. “Those are the moments that, as a storyteller, I’m interested in. I hoped readers would have the impression that in these 13 years the circles have closed for most of the little stories.”

While she doesn’t write all the time, Allende sets herself a grueling pace, writing 8-10 hours a day for the first six months of the year. The rest of the year is dedicated to correcting, editing, and promotional touring, during which she reads aloud from her work. “But when I’m writing, I’m very intense, very focused. I don’t see anybody. I don’t go out. I’m totally dedicated to the writing, so I’m very productive.”

Indeed she is, having written almost a book a year since 1982. Allende’s books have been translated into more than 30 languages. She works closely with her English translator, Margaret Sayers Peden, who has translated all but one of her books. “We have an almost psychic connection.” They go over each manuscript line by line. “Sometimes she improves my books because she catches things I’ve missed.” Occasionally, a Spanish word or phrase may be politically incorrect in English. Peden works around those, finding just the right way to say what Allende means.

Does she listen to audiobooks? “I’m totally addicted. I carry them in the car! My eyesight is not that good. I sit all day in front of the computer, and I write. It rests my eyes to be able to listen instead of reading.” She listens on the long commute between her California home and her office, when she’s on vacation, and as she pursues her passion for jewelry-making. Her recent listens include David Sedaris’s WHEN YOU ARE ENGULFED IN FLAMES and Richard Russo’s THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS. She read A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNSin print, and then listened to the audiobook. She plans to listen to Barack Obama’s latest book, THE AUDACITY OF HOPE, and THE GARDEN OF LAST DAYS, by Andre Dubus III.

While Allende has narrated documentaries and movies, she has no plans to narrate her own books for audio. “I have an accent. The accent is charming . . . for 10 minutes. In an audiobook you have the voice in your head, and you have it for hours. Then it [the accent] becomes really annoying.” She prefers to listen to books read by professional narrators. As for the audiobook of THE SUM OF OUR DAYS, she notes that it’s difficult to bring clarity to another person’s vision. “You’re dealing with something as close to the truth as possible, yet it is my version. Blair Brown has read several of my books. She does a very good job.”

Allende begins a new book on the eighth of January every year. Her latest is set in the Caribbean at the beginning of the 1800s. Her research has taken a long time, and writing has not been easy, but she tells us, “I think I have it. I just need to write the ending.”

We can’t wait.--S.J. Henschel

OCT/NOV 08
© AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Photo © Marcia Lieberman