Book Club Guide

Eva Luna

by Isabel Allende · 1987 · Romance

Key themes

The storyteller as protagonist — and storytelling as survival
A woman who constructs her identity through narrative
Latin America's political upheaval as the backdrop to a picaresque life

About this book

The history of a woman born poor, orphaned early, and who eventually rose to a position of unique influence.

Published in Spanish in 1987 and English in 1988, Eva Luna was Allende's third novel and is widely considered her most joyful. She has described it as a celebration of storytelling and a tribute to the women who taught her to tell stories.

Discussion questions

Eva Luna is a storyteller, and the novel is structured as the story she tells. What does Allende say through this recursive structure — the storyteller telling the story of the storyteller?
Eva moves through many different social strata across her life — servant, fugitive, television writer. What does this picaresque movement say about Latin American society and the possibilities it opens and closes for women?
The novel is warmer and more playful than The House of the Spirits. How does this tonal difference reflect different concerns — and does the comedy allow Allende to say things the more tragic register of the earlier novel cannot?
Eva's relationship with Rolf Carlé — a European photojournalist — is the novel's romantic thread. How does Allende develop this — and what does their storytelling bond (she tells stories, he records them) represent?
Eva Luna was made into a TV series in Venezuela. What does this adaptation say about the novel's qualities — and what does fiction give the story that the serialised form might struggle to contain?