In 1973, a military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the Chilean government, including the president, who was a cousin of Allende's.Zorro is a 2005 novel by Chilean author Isabel Allende. As of 2012, they were living in San Rafael, California.Īllende began her writing career working as a journalist in Chile. They were divorced in 1987, and Allende married an American, Willie Gordon, a year later. They had two children together, Paula in 1963 and Nicolás in 1966, but it was not a happy marriage. She traveled extensively with her grandfather and learned to truly love Chile.Īllende married Miguel Frías in 1962. She was sixteen years old and lived with her grandparents again. The family was in Beirut when civil war broke out in Lebanon, and Allende was sent home. Some years later, Allende's mother was married again, to a man who was also a diplomat, and Allende spent much of her adolescence in Bolivia and Lebanon. Allende's mother took her three children and moved back home to Santiago with her parents. Allende did not see Chile, her native country, until she was four years old, when her father abandoned the family. Her family lived there because her father was the Chilean ambassador to Peru. Isabel Allende Llona was born on August 2, 1942, in Lima, Peru. There are some mature topics in the novel, such as sexual situations and violence, making it more appropriate for older students. The novel is both a fun adventure story and an in-depth exploration of timeless themes like friendship, justice, and the role of religion in society. The result is a book rich with historical detail.

She threw herself into the project, researching the period, traveling to all of the novel's locations, and even taking fencing lessons. However, when the owners of the character's copyright approached her with the idea of writing a novel about him, she was almost insulted: she remembered thinking, I am a serious writer, I don't write on commission.' But the idea of inventing Zorro's youth-telling the tale of what turned him into a masked hero-captured Allende's imagination. She enjoyed watching modern film versions of his story with her grandchildren and, in the interview 'Loving Zorro, Writing Zorro, admitted, As a young woman I was in love with Zorro. She was indeed interested in the legendary character. The Chilean American novelist Isabel Allende almost refused to write her 2005 novel Zorro.

Zorro isabel allende review