Isabel Allende in Conversation

Manchester Literature Festival and the Centre for New Writing are thrilled to welcome one of Latin America’s greatest authors to the UK for her first visit in 12 years.

Born in Peru and raised in Chile, Isabel is the author of 24 best-selling books including The House of Spirits, Daughter of Fortune and City of the Beasts. Her work has been translated into 42 languages and she is the recipient of over 60 awards including the 2018 National Book Award’s Lifetime Achievement. To celebrate the publication of her new novel, A Long Petal of the Sea, Isabel will read and discuss her work with author and Professor of New Writing, Jeanette Winterson.

Informed by the lives of friends and relatives, A Long Petal of the Sea is a masterful work of historical fiction about home and belonging, hope and sorrow. It starts in 1939 at the end of the Spanish Civil War, when half a million refugees escaped Franco by walking from Spain to France, and follows a young doctor and his sister-in-law as they navigate the turmoil and displacement of the twentieth century. Their journey takes them from Europe to Chile and Venezuela and includes a rich web of characters who come together in love and tragedy over the course of four generations.

Join us for this special event with one of literature’s most enchanting storytellers.