_______________ 'An autobiographical meditation on feminism power and womanhood . Full of
Isabel's wisdom and warm words' - Grazia 'In her small potent polemic . . . Isabel Allende
writes about the toxic effects of "machismo" combining wit with anger as she picks apart the
patriarchy' - Independent 'Allende has everything it takes: the ear the eye the mind the
heart the all-encompassing humanity' - New York Times An Independent Guardian and Grazia
Highlight for 2021 _______________ The wise warm defiant new book from literary legend
Isabel Allende - a meditation on power feminism and what it means to be a woman When I say
that I was a feminist in kindergarten I am not exaggerating. As a child Isabel Allende
watched her mother abandoned by her husband provide for her three small children. As a young
woman coming of age in the late 1960s she rode the first wave of feminism. She has seen what
has been accomplished by the movement in the course of her lifetime. And over the course of
three marriages she has learned how to grow as a woman while having a partner when to step
away and the rewards of embracing one's sexuality. So what do women want? To be safe to be
valued to live in peace to have their own resources to be connected to have control over
their bodies and lives and above all to be loved. On all these fronts there is much work to
be done and this book Allende hopes will 'light the torch of our daughters and
granddaughters with mine. They will have to live for us as we lived for our mothers and carry
on with the work still left to be finished.' _______________ 'Her thoughts language and
ideas traverse fluidly through ideas of gender historic injustices her marriages and bodily
experiences and literary references . . . Allende's love for women is palpable' - Sydney
Morning Herald