Spend an evening with Isabel Allende Jan. 18

Isabel Allende, the internationally celebrated Latin American writer, will discuss her work and a broad range of topics at a special literary event at U.Va. Jan. 18.

The program, “An Evening With Isabel Allende,” will be held at 8 p.m. in Old Cabell Hall Auditorium and is free and open to the public. A book-signing will follow.

Allende, whose best-selling novels include The House of the Spirits, Of Love and Shadows and most recently, Portrait in Sepia, is the niece and goddaughter of the former Chilean President Salvador Allende. When he was assassinated in 1973, she was forced to leave Chile and worked as a journalist elsewhere in Latin America for a number of years.

Her moving 1995 autobiographical work, Paula, is dedicated to her daughter, who earned an M.A. in psychology from U.Va. and died at age 28 of a rare hereditary disease.

A visiting lecturer in U.Va.’s Spanish department in 1988, she currently lives in California. Her Jan. 18 appearance is sponsored by U.Va.’s Spanish department and several other Arts & Sciences departments and programs.