Please try again later. This week, he talks to Isabel Allende. Her books β including her bestselling debut, The House of the Spirits β have sold more than 65 million copies. Her latest novel is The Soul of a Woman. You just stumble along. That I was a feminist before the word reached my family. In Chile, I lived in a very backward, authoritarian, Catholic, conservative society. She had no money, no privileges, no job. She was totally dependent, a charity case for her father and her brothers.
I became enraged about her situation. The feminist movement is a revolution. You just stumble along, making mistakes, finding yourself at crossroads and suffering a lot of backlash. So the movement evolves and changes. Until the patriarchy is replaced by a world in which men and women have equal [power] and masculine and feminine values have the same weight in society, we have a lot of work to do.
In , you met your third and current husband, Roger Cukras. What makes Roger sexy? But you know what? If I think of a sexy man, I would think of a man like β¦ you! There comes a point in life when sexual attraction becomes a blend of humour, companionship and kindness. Fitting, given that Roger fell in love with you when he heard you being interviewed on the radio.
Yes, then he emailed me, morning and evening, for five months. I went to New York for a conference β I live in California β and he invited me out. Three days later, he proposed. So he sold his house, gave away everything he had and moved in with me. Are you going to stand on the margins of life because you want to be safe? Why not? My daughter died in my arms [in , aged 29, following a porphyria-induced coma]. My parents also died recently in my arms. And I have seen birth.
I received my granddaughters. I took them out of the womb and cut the umbilical cord. Birth and death are very similar experiences. Are you afraid? Sometimes, it emerges. I miss her because I had so much with her. So do I want to have no pain?
