The cause of Paula's illness was porphyria, an ancient and little-understood disease that Paula inherited from her father.Īllende's latest book, Paula, which began as a letter to her daughter while Isabel sat vigil at her bedside in a Madrid hospital, evolved into a search of Isabel's own-if not for God, then for a reason to go on living after all her maternal love and will power failed to bring her comatose daughter back to the world of the living.īy one of the coincidences that seem to shadow Isabel Allende in private life as well as in her writing, she was in Madrid to promote her novel The Infinite Plan the day Paula suffered violent seizures and sank into a coma. "I am seeking God, but he seems to elude me," Isabel Allende's daughter Paula wrote her mother shortly before she suffered a seizure and fell into a coma from which she never recovered. She shares her personal tragedy with a warmth and passion that make "Paula" exceptional.In her newest book, 'Paula,' novelist Isabel Allende searches for ancient meaning in the modern suffering of her daughter
'Allende brings the natural storytelling power so evident in her novels to this courageous testament. In flawlessly rich prose Allende shares with us her most intimate feelings.an emotionally charged, spellbinding memoir.' Washington Post
"Paula" begins as a long letter as a way of giving her back the life that is ebbing away.the result is a mesmerizing story. 'This is a tender, moving and vivid record of a mother's agony at the bedside of her daughter. Moving through Paula's last days, we enter that world, and share it, gladly, sadly, gratefully, and ultimately changed by the very reading of it.' Julia Neuberger, The Times 'Allende's writing is so vivid we smell the countryside, hear the sounds, see the bright birds, smell and even taste the soft fruit.
'Allende's best work to date.she has everything it takes: the ear, the eye, the mind, the heart, the all-encompassing humanity.' New York Times
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