Hello, it's Gilbert Cruz. Today we have something different. Well, somewhat different. It's still me, but I'm speaking to you from another corner of the times.

Recently, I had the opportunity to stand in for Lulu Garcia Navarro on the show that

she co-hosts with David Marquesi, the interview. I was lucky enough to speak with Isabel Iyende,

whose new novel, my name is Emilia del Valle, will be out soon. Let's turn to that conversation now.

From the New York Times, this is the interview. I'm Gilbert Cruz.

I'm guest hosting this week, filling in for Lulu.

If you don't know me, I'm the editor of the New York Times Book Review and the host of the book review. And I'm very happy to be getting the chance to talk with author Isabelle Iyende.

At 82, Iande is one of the world's most beloved and bestselling Spanish language authors.

Her work has been translated into more than 40 languages and 80 million copies of her books

have been sold around the world.

Iynde's newest book is called My Name is Emilia Del Valle, and it's about a dark period in Chilean history, the 1891 Chilean Civil War.

Like so much of Iynde's work, it's a story about women, in tough spots who figure out a way through.

It's not that far off from Iynde's own story.

She was raised in Chile, but in 1973, when she was 31 and working as a journalist with two small children, her life was upended forever.

It was then that a military coup pushed out the democratically elected president, Salvador Aende, who was her cousin.

She fled to Venezuela, where she wrote her first book, The House of the Spirits,

which evolved from a letter she had started to her dying grandfather.

That book became a runaway bestseller, and it remains one of her best known works.

She moved to the U.S. in the late 1980s, where she has been writing steadily ever since.

Here is my conversation with Isabel Iyende.

Hello, Gilbert, do you know, you're saying.

A little.

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