Forest of the Pygmies

by Isabel Allende

  P.S. Insights, Interviews & More . . .

  About the author

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  Isabel Allende on Destiny, Personal Tragedy, and Writing

  About the book

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  A Conversation with Isabel Allende

  Read on

  * * *

  Have You Read? More by Isabel Allende

  About the author

  * * *

  Isabel Allende on Destiny, Personal Tragedy, and Writing

  © William Gordon

  “Life is nothing but noise between two unfathomable silences.” Can you describe that noise, what it is, and what it means to you?

  We have very busy lives—or we make them very busy. There is noise and activity everywhere. Few people know how to be still and find a quiet place inside themselves. From that place of silence and stillness the creative forces emerge. There we find faith, hope, strength, and wisdom. Since childhood, however, we are taught to do things. Our heads are full of noise. Silence and solitude scare most of us.

  You often talk and write about destiny. What is destiny for you?

  We are born with a set of cards and we have the freedom to play them the best we can, but we cannot change them. I was born female in the forties into a conservative Catholic family in Chile. I was born healthy. I had my shots as a child. I received love and a proper education. All that determines who I am. The really important events in my life happened in spite of me. I had no control over them: the fact that my father left the family when I was three; the 1973 military coup in Chile that forced me into exile; meeting my husband Willie; the success of my books; the death of my daughter; and so forth. That is destiny.

  Just before your daughter, Paula, went into a coma, she said, “I look everywhere for God but can’t find him.” Do you, can you, have faith in God after such a tragedy?

  Faith has nothing to do with being happy or not. Faith is a gift. Some people receive it and some don’t. I imagine that a tragedy like losing a child is more bearable if you believe in God because you can imagine that your child is in heaven.

  Do you think that fiction has a moral purpose? Or can it simply be entertainment?

  It can be just entertainment, but when fiction makes you think, it is much more exciting. However, beware of authors who pound their “moral messages” into you.

  You have written letters all your life, most notably a daily letter to your mother. You’ve also worked as a journalist. Which form or experience of writing helped you most when you started writing books?

  The training of writing daily is very useful. As a journalist I learned to research, to be disciplined, to meet deadlines, to be precise and direct, and to keep in mind the reader and try to grab his or her attention from the very beginning.

  “The really important events in my life happened in spite of me. I had no control over them.”

  Does writing each book change you?

  Writing is a process, a journey into memory and the soul. Why do I write only about certain themes and certain characters? Because they are part of my life, part of myself, they are aspects of me that I need to explore and understand.

  You loved science fiction as an adolescent. Do you think it inspired your love of creating other worlds?

  Science fiction reinforced the idea—planted by my grandmother—that the universe is very strange and complex. Everything is possible and we know very little. My mind and my heart are open to the mystery.

  You always start writing on January 8th, but when do you finish? How long does it take you to write your books?

  I write approximately a book per year, but it takes me several years to research a theme. It takes me three or four months to write the first draft, then I have to correct and edit. I write in Spanish, so I also have to work closely with my English translator, Margaret Sayers Peden. And then I have to spend time on book tours, interviews, traveling, et cetera.

  Do you have a favorite among your books?

  I don’t read my own books. As soon as I finish one I am already thinking of the next. I can hardly remember each book. I don’t have a favorite, but I am grateful to my first novel, The House of the Spirits, which paved the way for all the others, and to Paula, because it saved me from depression.

  You grew up in Chile but now live in the United States. Which country has had the most influence on your writing and why?

  It is very easy for me to write about Chile. I don’t have to think about it. The stories just flow. My roots are in Chile and most of my books have a Latin American flavor. However, I have lived in the United States for many years, I read mainly English fiction, I live in English, and certainly that influences my writing.

  About the book

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  A Conversation with Isabel Allende

  “The idea for this novel started on a bush plane on a very bumpy ride flying over the Serengeti in Kenya.”

  With the characters of Alexander Cold and Nadia Santos, we have already traveled to the Amazon (City of the Beasts) and the Himalayas (Kingdom of the Golden Dragon), both places you’ve visited. This final book in the trilogy takes place in Africa. Had you traveled there before you wrote it?

  Yes, I have been in Africa, but most of my descriptions in this book come from my research and my imagination.

  Do any of the experiences you had on that trip stand out in your memory? Did any of them directly influence the plot of Forest of the Pygmies?

  The idea for this novel started on a bush plane on a very bumpy ride flying over the Serengeti in Kenya. The pilot had incredible stories to tell. Also, it was very inspiring to see the wild animals at close range, especially the elephants. Unfortunately I did not see gorillas (like the ones that appear in the novel) on this trip, only a few chimps that were kept as pets.

  The dedication to Forest of the Pygmies reads “For Brother Fernando de la Fuente, missionary in Africa, whose spirit animates this story.” Can you tell us more about that animating spirit and how his life inspired your novel?

  I met Brother Fernando de la Fuente in a small town in Chile. He was a Spanish missionary, a well-read man who liked to write poetry. He was stern, but also compassionate and often very kind. He felt that he was not fulfilling his mission in Chile—the task was too easy, too safe. He read that missionaries were needed in Rwanda in times of the genocide, and he decided to go. Before leaving he gave away everything he owned: he knew that he was not going to come back and that probably he was going to die. A few months later he was brutally tortured and killed by the same people he had been helping in Rwanda. His story touched my deeply. He had so much courage!

  Forest of the Pygmies, like the rest of the trilogy, is richly detailed. How did you learn about the landscapes and inhabitants of the African forest, for example, or the process by which elephant tusks are smuggled?

  As I said, some of the ideas came from my trips to Africa, but I also needed to do a lot of research. I read a lot. I watched movies and documentaries, researched on the Internet. The research forced me more than once to turn to another direction. This always happens in my research and it is very exciting. The place, the time, the people—all that is so inspiring that really I don’t need to stretch my imagination.

  Your adventure trilogy—City of the Beasts, Kingdom of the Golden Dragon, and Forest of the Pygmies—has been published for both young adults and adults. How do you explain its crossover appeal?

  Most books for young adults are also read by adults. I am very careful with style, language, and research. I do not underestimate my young readers; I treat them as if they were experienced readers. Maybe that’s why adults are also reading this trilogy.

  Did you uncover elements of your writing style that adult fans might be seeing for the first time? What is the greatest challenge of writing stories that appeal to a multigenerational audience?

  “There are a few points that are important to me: respect for other people’s feelings and way of life, respect for nature, respect for eld
ers, and most of all: self-respect.”

  I have been labeled as a writer of “magic realism.” However, I think that my adult readers will be surprised by how much magic realism can stretch in the trilogy. Also, they may find more suspense than usual.

  Has writing these high-velocity adventure stories had any lasting impact on the way you plot and craft your novels?

  Not that I am aware of, though in every book I learn something. Each book has its own tone, rhythm, style. I can’t use a formula or a recipe. I have the feeling that every time I have to invent everything from scratch.

  When you consider the trilogy as a whole, is there a single “moral of the story” that you most hope will stay with your readers, young and old?

  There are a few points that are important to me: respect for other people’s feelings and way of life, respect for nature, respect for elders, and most of all: self-respect. Alex and Nadia are smart and brave, and they are both in a journey of self-discovery. They have great dignity and decency.

  It’s been several years since you last wrote about Alexander and Nadia. What do you imagine they’re up to now?

  They are living in California and studying at the university. In a year Alexander will be doing his residency, and after that he will apply for a job with Doctors Without Borders. Nadia is studying languages and writing the first manual ever for communicating with animals. She believes that if humans could speak with animals, they would learn to respect them and take better care of nature. She is horrified at the cruelty animals experience from humans. Of course, she is vegetarian. She has asked Kate for Alexander’s hand, which the grandmother has granted because Nadia already had her grandson’s heart, so the hand had to follow. Alexander doesn’t know this yet. Kate is still traveling; she is older, tougher, and meaner, but Nadia and Alexander adore her and they still travel with her whenever possible.

  Read on

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  Have You Read? More by Isabel Allende

  CITY OF THE BEASTS

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  Riveting reading for Allende fans young and old, ecothriller City of the Beasts takes fifteen-year-old Alexander Cold on the trip of a lifetime. Parting from his family and ill mother, Alexander joins his fearless grandmother, a magazine reporter for International Geographic, on an expedition to the remote and dangerous world of the Amazon. Their mission, along with the others on their team—including a celebrated anthropologist, a local guide and his young daughter Nadia, and a doctor—is to document the legendary Beast of the Amazon.

  Alexander is amazed to discover under the dense jungle canopy much more than he could have imagined about the hidden worlds of the rain forest. Drawing on the strength of the jaguar, the totemic animal Alexander finds within himself, and the eagle, Nadia’s spirit guide, both young people are led by the invisible People of the Mist on a thrilling and unforgettable journey to the ultimate discovery.

  “Part thrilling survival adventure, part coming-of-age journey. . . . Blends magical realism with grim history and contemporary politics in a way that shakes up all the usual definitions of savagery and civilization.”

  —Booklist (starred review)

  KINGDOM OF THE GOLDEN DRAGON

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  Not many months have passed since Alexander Cold followed his bold grandmother into the heart of the Amazon to uncover its legendary Beast. This time reporter Kate Cold escorts her grandson and his closest friend, Nadia, along with the photographers from International Geographic, on a journey to another remote niche of the world—this time in the Himalayas. The team’s task is to locate its fabled Golden Dragon, a sacred statue and priceless oracle that can foretell the future of the kingdom.

  In their scramble to reach the statue before it is destroyed by the greed of an outsider, Alexander and Nadia must use the transcendent power of their totemic animal spirits: Jaguar and Eagle. With the aid of a sage Buddhist monk, his young royal disciple, and a fierce tribe of Yeti warriors, Alexander and Nadia fight to protect the holy rule of the Golden Dragon.

  “Imagining this utopian land and animating Buddhist beliefs is clearly fun for Allende, and her joy translates onto the page.”

  —San Francisco Chronicle

  DAUGHTER OF FORTUNE

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  An orphan raised in Valparaíso, Chile, by a Victorian spinster and her rigid brother, young, vivacious Eliza Sommers follows her lover to California during the Gold Rush of 1849. Entering a rough-and-tumble world of new arrivals driven mad by gold fever, Eliza moves in a society of single men and prostitutes with the help of her good friend and savior, the Chinese doctor Tao Chi’en. California opens the door to a new life of freedom and independence for the young Chilean, and her search for her elusive lover gradually turns into another kind of journey. By the time she finally hears news of him, Eliza must decide who her true love really is.

  “An extravagant tale by a gifted storyteller whose spell brings to life the nineteenth-century world. . . . Entertaining and well paced . . . compelling.”

  —Los Angeles Times

  “A rich cast of characters . . . a pleasurable story. . . . In Daughter of Fortune, Allende has continued her obsession with passion and violence.”

  —New York Times Book Review

  PORTRAIT IN SEPIA

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  As a young girl Aurora del Valle suffered a brutal trauma that shaped her character and erased from her mind all recollection of the first five years of her life. Raised by her ambitious grandmother, the regal and commanding Paulina del Valle, she grows up in a privileged environment. Aurora is free of the limitations that circumscribed the lives of women at that time, but is tormented by terrible nightmares. When she finds herself alone at the end of an unhappy love affair, she decides to explore the mystery of her past and to discover exactly what it was all those years ago that had such a devastating effect on her young life. Richly detailed and epic in scope, this engrossing story of the dark power of hidden secrets is intimate in its probing of human character and thrilling in the way it illuminates the complexity of family ties.

  “Rich with color and emotion and packed with intriguing characters.”

  —San Francisco Chronicle

  ZORRO

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  Born in southern California late in the eighteenth century, Diego de la Vega is a child of two worlds. His father is an aristocratic Spanish military man turned landowner; his mother a Shoshone warrior. Diego learns from his maternal grandmother, White Owl, the ways of her tribe, while receiving from his father lessons in the art of fencing and in cattle branding. It is here, during a childhood filled with mischief and adventure, that Diego witnesses the brutal injustices dealt Native Americans by European settlers and first feels the inner conflict of his heritage.

  At the age of sixteen, Diego is sent to Barcelona for a European education. In a country chafing under the corruption of Napoleonic rule, Diego follows the example of his celebrated fencing master and joins La Justicia, a secret underground resistance movement devoted to helping the powerless and the poor. With this tumultuous period as a backdrop, Diego falls in love, saves the persecuted, and confronts for the first time a great rival who emerges from the world of privilege.

  Between California and Barcelona, the New World and the Old, the persona of Zorro is formed, a great hero is born, and the legend begins. After many adventures—duels at dawn, fierce battles with pirates at sea, and impossible rescues—Diego de la Vega, a.k.a. Zorro, returns to America to reclaim the hacienda on which he was raised and to seek justice for all who cannot fight for it themselves.

  “Allende’s discreetly subversive talent really shows. . . . You turn the pages, cheering on the masked man.”

  —Los Angeles Times

  INÉS OF MY SOUL

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  This magisterial work of historical fiction recounts the astonishing life of Inés Suarez, a daring Spanish conquistadora who toiled to build the nation of Chile—and whose vital role has too often been neglected by hist
ory.

  It is the beginning of the Spanish conquest of the Americas, and when Inés’s shiftless husband disappears to the New World, she uses the opportunity to search for him as an excuse to flee her stifling homeland and seek adventure. After a treacherous journey to Peru, she learns of his death in battle. She meets and begins a passionate love affair with a man who seeks only honor and glory: Pedro Valdivia, war hero and field marshal to the famed Francisco Pizarro. Together, Inés and Valdivia will build the new city of Santiago and wage a ruthless war against the indigenous Chileans. The horrific struggle will change them forever, pulling them toward separate destinies.

  Inés of My Soul is a work of breathtaking scope, written with the narrative brilliance and passion readers have come to expect from Isabel Allende.

  “Riveting . . . it simply captivates. . . . A colorful and clear-eyed portrait of a woman and a country.”

  —Chicago Sun-Times

  APHRODITE: A MEMOIR OF THE SENSES

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  Under the aegis of the Goddess of Love, Isabel Allende uses her storytelling skills brilliantly in Aphrodite to evoke the delights of food and sex. After considerable research and study she has become an authority on aphrodisiacs, which include everything from food and drink to stories and, of course, love. Readers will find here recipes from Allende’s mother, poems, stories from ancient and foreign literature, paintings, personal anecdotes, fascinating tidbits on the sensual art of food and its effect on amorous performance, tips on how to attract your mate and revive flagging virility, passages on the effect of smell on libido, a history of alcoholic beverages, and much more.