All main characters in both The House of the Spirits and Of Love and Shadows are strong, temperamental women who stand up for what they believe and fight for what they want out of their lives. Isabel Allende, being a Latin American woman herself, writes often about the strong minded and unfaltering features of Latin American women, oppressed by the patriarchal system and the antiquated belief that a woman cannot or will not do what a man is able to carry out throughout his life. Isabel Allende bases her books around the lives of brave, tireless women who lead their lives as best as they can in their oppressive societies, persistent to overpower the powers diving them down to femininity and uselessness.

The House of the Spirits, originally started as a letter to her dying grandfather, transforms into an extraordinary novel that holds the power of a very...