You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed, for you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

Hi, and welcome to Bookworm.

This is Michael Silverblad, and today my guest is Isabella Yende, who is here upon the publication of her memoir, Paula, published by Harper Collins publishers.

She's the author, of course, as well, of the House of the Spirits, of Love and Shadows, Eva Luna, the stories of Eva Luna, and the Infinite Plan.

This book is a book that's, in a way, remarkably difficult to talk about because it was written as she sat at the bedside of her daughter, Paola, who was in a coma,

and whose gradual death extended over a year's time.

I can understand how one could write such a book out of the need to have a communication. But after you had written it,

was it bearable to reread it? How did you feel about it afterwards?

Actually, I started writing the book when Paola fell in a coma, and the first sentence of the book somehow describes the whole book. The first sentence is, listen, Paola, I'm going to tell you a story so that when you wake up, you will not be so lost. The whole idea was a letter for her because I was convinced that she was going to wake up. The book started to grow as this illness was prolonged.

First weeks, then months passed, and I was there writing and writing about Paula and about my memories and my life.

So the book was growing in a very organic way in two parallel lines.

One was the development of what was happening to Paulaola, and the other one was the chronological

order of what had happened in my life.

When I finished, the ending of the book I didn't know, of course, but the ending I should

have known was Paola's death. When she died, it was a very peaceful and

wonderful moment, a long day and a long night that really transformed all of us who were there.

However, we couldn't find Paola's husband because he was traveling. And I didn't want

him to see her wife for the last time

I don't know in a morgue or in a hospital or someplace so I wanted him to see her at home

and by the time he got there a day and a half had passed and I stayed during all the time

...