Which author wrote the magical realist novel 'The House of the Spirits'?

Isabel Allende wrote the magical realist novel The House of the Spirits.

Published in Spanish as La casa de los espíritus in 1982, the novel was Allende’s debut. It follows the Trueba family across four generations while blending domestic drama, political upheaval, memory, spirits, clairvoyance, and other extraordinary events into everyday life. The unnamed country closely parallels Chilean history.

Allende began the manuscript as a letter to her dying grandfather while she was living in Venezuela. The project grew into a novel shaped by family memories, exile, and the political violence surrounding Chile’s 1973 coup. It was first published in Barcelona after being rejected by several Spanish-language publishers, then became an international bestseller.

Readers often confuse Allende with Gabriel García Márquez because both are strongly associated with magical realism. García Márquez wrote One Hundred Years of Solitude, a major influence on Allende, but he did not write The House of the Spirits. Toni Morrison and Laura Esquivel are also acclaimed authors, but neither wrote this novel.