FROM THE PUBLISHER

Here, in an astonishing debut by a gifted storyteller, is the saga of proud and passionate men and women and the turbulent times through which they suffer and triumph. They are the Truebas. And theirs is a world you won't want to leave, and one you won't forget.

Esteban—The patriarch, a volatile and proud man whose lust for land is legendary and who is haunted by his tyrannical passion for the wife he can never completely possess.

Clara—The matriarch, elusive and mysterious, who foretells family tragedy and shapes the fortunes of the house of the Truebas.

Blanca—Their daughter, soft-spoken yet rebellious, whose shocking love for the son of her father's foreman fuels Esteban's everlasting contempt... even as it produces the grandchild he adores.

Alba—The fruit of Blanca's forbidden love, a luminous beauty, a fiery and willful woman... the family's break with the past and link to the future.

"Extraordinary... Powerful... Sharply observant, witty and eloquent."—Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times

"...Isabelle Allende has indeed shown us the relationships between past and present, family and nation, city and country, spiritual and political values. She has done so with enormous imagination, sensitivity, and compassion."—Jane Futcher, San Francisco Chronicle

SYNOPSIS

Here, in an astonishing debut by a gifted storyteller, is the magnificent saga of proud and passionate men and women and the turbulent times through which they suffer and triumph. They are the Truebas. And theirs is a world you will not want to leave, and one you will not forget.

Esteban -- The patriarch, a volatile and proud man whose lust for land is legendary and who is haunted by his tyrannical passion for the wife he can never completely possess.

Clara -- The matriarch, elusive and mysterious, who foretells family tragedy and shapes the fortunes of the house of the Truebas.

Blanca -- Their daughter, soft-spoken yet rebellious, whose shocking love for the son of her father's foreman fuels Esteban's everlasting contempt... even as it produces the grandchild he adores.

Alba -- The fruit of Blanca's forbidden love, a luminous bearty, a fiery and willful woman... the family's break with the past and link to the future.


From the Paperback edition.

FROM THE CRITICS

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt - The New York Times

Extraordinary...powerful...sharply observant, witty and eloquent.

Carol E. Rinzler - Cosmopolitan

There are few trips more thrilling that those taken in the imagination of a brilliant novelist. That experience is available in The House of the Spirits by Isabelle Allende....Although remote from our country and our time, the characters, their joys and their anguish, could not be more contemporary or immediate.

Johathan Yardley - The Washington Post