Contains the best contemporary criticism on the works of Isabel Allende as well as bibliographical and biographical information.

"Magic books" and the magic of books / Patricia Hart -- Ink, blood, and kisses : La casa de los espritus and the myth of disunity / E. Thomson Shields Jr. -- "Parenting the text" : female creativity and dialogic relationships in Isabel Allende's La casa de los espritus / Doris Meyer -- Iconic/metaphoric dress and other nonverbal signifiers in De amor y de sombra / Catherine R. Perricone -- The act/art of narrating's Eva Luna / Edna Aguirre Rehbein -- Binding the wounds of the body politic : nation as family in La casa de los espritus / Norma Helsper -- Escrituras y escritoras : the artist-protagonist of Isabel Allende / Susan de Carvalho -- The struggle for space : feminism and freedom / Ronie-Richelle Garca-Johnson -- Mask and mirror : Isabel Allende's mechanism for justice in The house of the spirits / Claudia Marie Kovach -- Tyrants and trash : sex, class and culture in La casa de los espritus / Philip Swanson -- Eva Luna : writing as history / Lynne Diamond-Nigh -- Genre and metarealism in Allende's Paula / Catherine R. Perricone -- Choosing Barrabas : dog as text & text as dog in Isabel Allende's La casa de los espritus / Carolyn Pinet -- The other and the other worldly : the function of magic in Isabel Allende's La casa de los espritus / Caroline Bennett.