Isabel Allende gets Andersen literature prize

Chilean author Isabel Allende Sunday received the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Prize from the hands of Denmark’s Crown Prince Frederik at a ceremony held in this Danish city. Allende was selected to receive the award, which comes with 500,000 Danish kroner ($86,000), “for her qualities as a magical narrator and her talent for captivating her public”, according to the judging panel.

The author of “The House of the Spirits” expressed her thanks for the honour, which she called one of the most “meaningful” she has received because it bears the name of the celebrated Danish storyteller and is “a tribute to fantasy, to magic”.

“Andersen’s stories were the first I heard as a little girl. My mother read them to me in Spanish,” she said in her acceptance speech.

Those stories “stimulated my curiosity, nourished my fantasy and taught me things about loyalty, love, greatness, the pains and losses of life”, she said.

More than 57 million copies of Allende’s books, which incorporate elements of magic and fantasy, have been sold worldwide, most notably The House of the Spirits, which catapulted her to fame when it was published in 1982.

She is a lifelong advocate for human rights, a passionate speaker, and the founder of the Isabel Allende Foundation.

Previous award recipients include Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho and Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling.