"The unforgettable first novel that established Isabel Allende as one of the world's most gifted and imaginative storytellers. The House of the Spirits brings to life the triumphs and tragedies of three generations of the Trueba family. The patriarch Esteban is a volatile, proud man whose voracious pursuit of political power is tempered only by his love for his delicate wife, Clara, a woman with a mystical connection to the spirit world. When their...

Memory is not the same thing as history. Inside Spain as well as outside, many believe-- wrongly-- that under Franco's dictatorship, nothing truthful or imaginatively worthwhile could be said or written or shown. Treglown argues that in recent years the country has begun to make a more public attempt to "reclaim" its modern history, and reveals that despite state censorship, events of the time were vividly recorded. The result is a much-needed reexamination...