In times of fear, desperation and loneliness, stories provide us with an escape. In the

Decamaran by the 14th century Italian author Giovanni Baccaccio, Ten Young People sheltered

in a remote house for two weeks to protect themselves from the Black Death. To pass the

evenings, they tell tales of normal life and wild fantasy, love, hatred and everything

in between. They hope that by the end the plague will have passed. In the meantime, their

stories provide distraction, company and the possibility of a happy ending.

You're listening to the economist asks, I'm Anne McElvoy and his people around the

world remain in lockdown to try to stem the spread of coronavirus. We're asking, is

imagination, the cure for isolation?

My guest today is Isabella Yende, a master storyteller whose own life has encompassed

adventure, triumph and tragedy. Born in Peru and brought up in Chile, she was forced to

flee to Venezuela in 1973 after a military coup toppled the president, Salvador Yende,

her cousin. Her first novel written in exile was the House of the Spirits and it placed

at the forefront of a new wave of Latin American writers. Nearly 40 years later, her books

have sold over 74 million copies in 42 languages and they've earned her the Chilean national

prize for literature and the American presidential medal of freedom. Her latest novel is A Long

Petal of the Sea. It's a tale of love on the run from fascism across continents and through

the turbulences of the 20th century. Isabella Yende, welcome to the economist asks,

thank you so much for having me. Your story turns around an extraordinary event in 1939,

the poet Pablo Neruda chartered a ship to take over 2000 Republican refugees from the Spanish

Civil War to Chile and he arrived on the very day that the war broke out in Europe. Your

protagonists who are called Victor and Rosa are on that ship. How did you come across this tale?

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