/ Key title From one of the world's best-loved storytellers comes a magical novel of adventure and discovery / The City of Beasts has sold over 200,000 copies worldwide and is still selling fast / Allende always attracts widespread review coverage in national and regional press and magazines / Major broadsheet interview in weekend newspaper with second interview in a daily broadsheet / Radio 4 slot -- Woman's Hour or Open Book -- are keen to feature her / BBC World Service planning a programme on her / Website at www isabelallende.com / Competition: Philip Pullman
Isabel Allende was born in 1942, and is the niece of Salvador Allende, who went on to become famous as the elected President of Chile deposed in a CIA-backed coup. She worked as a journalist, playwright and children’s writer in Chile until 1974 and then in Venezuela until 1984. Her first novel for adults, ‘The House of the Spirits’, was published in Spanish in 1982, beginning life as a letter to her dying grandfather. It was an international sensation, and ever since all her books have been acclaimed and adored in numberless translations worldwide.
Praise for Kingdom of the Golden Dragon: ‘Allende again proves her talent for evoking exotic landscapes, spinning tall stories and weaving seductive magic.’ Sunday Times 'This spellbinding novel, like its predecessor, is storytelling at its best' Mail on Sunday Praise for City of the Beasts: 'Written with Allende's characteristic verve, City of the Beasts is the kind of accomplishment to show young readers that there's more to life than Harry Potter.' Literary Review 'A vivid fable… Allende's prose soars' Guardian 'Marvellous, marvel-filled… Beautifully written and utterly entrancing' Independent on Sunday
Praise for Kingdom of the Golden Dragon:
'Allende again proves her talent for evoking exotic landscapes, spinning tall stories and weaving seductive magic.' Sunday Times
'This spellbinding novel, like its predecessor, is storytelling at its best' Mail on Sunday
Praise for City of the Beasts:
'Written with Allende's characteristic verve, City of the Beasts is the kind of accomplishment to show young readers that there's more to life than Harry Potter.' Literary Review
'A vivid fable... Allende's prose soars' Guardian
'Marvellous, marvel-filled... Beautifully written and utterly entrancing' Independent on Sunday
Gr 7-10-In the final installment of a trilogy that began with City of the Beasts (2002) and Kingdom of the Golden Dragon (2004, both HarperCollins), 18-year-old Alexander Cold, his globe-trotting journalist grandmother, and their 15-year-old friend, Nadia, travel to Kenya to take an elephant safari. Soon, the party takes a detour to the jungle to find some missing missionaries, and, in the process becomes embroiled in a messy bit of business. It involves a military man who has taken over a village and terrorized and enslaved the local Bantu and Pygmy tribes. Although this adventure can stand alone, the amazing abilities of Alexander and Nadia (which include turning into their "totems" of a jaguar and an eagle, talking with animals, and becoming invisible) may strike newcomers to the series as somewhat jarring, not to mention rather too convenient to the plot. The language can be lyrical and several of the characters (especially Angie, the almost-fearless female African pilot) are charismatic, but too often the emotions and personalities of Alexander and Nadia are narrated in long passages instead of shown through action and dialogue, creating an emotional distance that detracts from an otherwise fine adventure tale. Buy where the first two books are popular.-Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
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