On Jan. 25, Chilean writer Isabel Allende will release her latest novel entitled Violeta, a work set across a full century, marked by the Spanish flu in 1920 and the COVID pandemic in 2020. From Penguin Random House, the novel will be released in print, digital and audiobook formats, and will be released in a few days in Spanish and English in the United States and Latin America.

The Chilean writer has created a heroine whose story takes place during 100 years of Latin America history. Violeta is the first child in a family of five siblings, her life is marked by a series of complex contexts, from the Great War to the Great Depression. Her family loses everything and will be forced to retire to a rural region far from the country's capital. 

"Violeta's life is much more than the story of two pandemics separated by a century: in a letter addressed to the person she loves above all others, she recalls love disappointments and romances, moments of poverty and prosperity, losses and joys," says the editorial statement, "Her life will be shaped by some of the great events of history: from the crash of 1929 to the struggle for women's rights, through the rise and fall of Latin American dictatorships."

The almost octogenarian, Allende has devoted the last 40 years to literature. She has written 25 books and received more than 60 international awards. In 2018, she became the first Spanish-language writer to be awarded the National Book Award Medal of Honor in the United States for her contribution to the world of literature.