Their relationship is an examination of how truth is always the result of a collision between fact and fiction.

Her story thus becomes a thematic obsession with the magical properties of the imagination to protect one against all those elements of life conspiring against them.Įva’s obsession with fiction is placed in juxtaposition with the obsessions of Rolf Carle, an Austrian émigré whose passion for documentary was instilled by a traumatic experience in his past involving burying dead bodies left behind by Nazis fleeing their prison camp in the final days of World War II. Her turn to storytelling is a means of staking a claim to that dignity which not even the darkest of ordinary life can take. Eva’s turn to fiction is not engendered by a literal oppressive threat to her mortality, but rather by social and political circumstances always perched like a vulture ready to feast upon the entrails of her dignity. This is a genre in which the inexplicable and seemingly supernatural exists alongside the mundane and ordinary. Her third novel, Eva Luna is one of Allende’s demonstrations of mastery of the 20th century literary genre most often associated with Latin American writers: Magical Realism.

A quote from the tales of the Arabian Nights prefacing the story indicates that the title character is intended to be interpreted as a latter-day analogue to Scheherazade, the legendary captive who extended her life for another day by weaving a captivating tale for her abductor each night.

We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own.Ĭhilean novelist Isabel Allende’s Eva Luna was published in its original Spanish in 1985 with the first translation into English appearing three years later. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community.

Isabel allende the stories of eva luna