Isabel Allende was born in Peru, but her parents were Chilean. She lived and worked in Chile for years but fled to Venezuela following the military coup that saw Chilean president Salvador Allende, her father’s cousin, assassinated. Allende eventually settled in the United States in the 1980s, and over the course of her life has written numerous books. Violeta, her 26th book, draws on a number of her life experiences and carries themes and ideas that Allende commonly explores in her books.

For instance, Violeta takes place in an unnamed Latin American country; however, numerous details clearly denote that it is Chile, especially the political history of the country. The rise and fall of the Socialist president in Violeta’s country in a bloody military coup mirror events surrounding Salvador Allende’s assassination and General Augusto Pinochet’s subsequent dictatorship in Chile. Similarly, Colonia Esperanza seems to reference Colonia Dignidad, a German immigrant colony in Chile run like a cult by Paul Schäfer, an escapee from post-World War II Germany. Colonia Dignidad was the site of numerous atrocities, including child sexual abuse and the torture and extermination of prisoners, seemingly sanctioned by Pinochet, similar to what takes place in Violeta at Colonia Esperanza.