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Hi, I'm Veronica Dagger, and this is the Wall Street Journal's Secrets of Wealthy Women,

where women share how they tackle career, money, and the world.

Today we're excited to welcome best-selling Chilean American author Isabelle Iende to secrets.

Isabel was a hit author right out of the gate. You might remember her debut novel, House of Spirits, which was turned into a film with

Merrill Street, Glenn Close, Antonio Banderas, and Jeremy Irons. Since then

Isabel has written 24 books and sold more than 74 million copies around the world.

That makes her among the highest selling Spanish language authors ever.

Isabel has a new book out called The Long Petal of the Sea, which tackles the themes of immigration, love, and home.

And she's here to talk to us about all of that, what it took to start a new career in her 40s, and how she's kept it going into her 70s.

Thank you for joining us, Isabel.

Thank you for having me, Veronica.

It's my pleasure.

So let's start off by talking about your new book,

A Long Petal of the Sea.

How would you describe it for the listener?

It's a love story and a story of displacement. It's a story of a couple. They are refugees from the Civil War in Spain in 1939.

...