The House of the Spirits

City of the Beasts

Island beneath the sea

Those are just a few of the titles that best-selling author Isabel Iende has written in her 40-year career as a novelist.

She sold more than 70 million copies of her books, which have been translated into more than 40 languages.

Her latest book, The Wind, Knows My Name, explores the lives of two children 80 years apart.

One of them is fleeing Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938, and the other is fleeing danger in El Salvador in 2019.

Isabel joins us after the break to discuss her latest novel.

We talk about her life experiences and how those have influenced her work.

We also take a look at the role books play in helping us navigate the complexities of our modern world.

I'm Jen White. You're listening to the 1A podcast where we get to the heart of the story.

We'll be back with more in just a moment. Stay with us.

Let's get right into it by meeting today's guest. Isabel Iende, welcome to 1A.

Thank you for having me in the program.

Well, before we explore your latest novel, let's rewind a bit back to 1973.

That's when a military coup led by General Agosto Penochet overthrew the Chilean government.

Your father's cousin, Salvador Iende, was president at the time.

He was killed in that coup, and you and many others were blacklisted by the new government,

and you fled to Venezuela. How did the experience of being a political refugee shape you and shape your life?

I think I wouldn't be a writer today without that experience.

Loosing everything, the family, my home, my country, my job, and living in Venezuela, like a political refugee,

was an experience that was very hard, and I think that one of the hardest part of it was that I couldn't find a job

...