(1942-) Chilean novelist. She is one of the leading exponents of magic realism. After the assassination 1973 of her uncle, Chile’s socialist president Salvador Allende, exile in Venezuela released memories of family and country which emerged in her first novel La casa de los espíritus/The House of the Spirits 1982, now filmed in English. Her later novels De amor y de sombra/Of Love and Shadows 1984 and Eva Luna 1987 combine fantasy with the “real” worlds of investigative journalism, filmmaking, and politics. She has also published short stories and children’s books.