'The House of the Spirits' is transformed into a luxury series

BarcelonaThe House of the Spirits, by Isabel Allende, is arguably one of the most popular novels in Latin American literature. At a time when platforms have embraced literary adaptations as a formula for success, platforms have embraced literary adaptations as a formula for success, it was to be expected that such a well-known book would eventually have a television version, and an exuberant one at that. Prime Video premieres its adaptation of Isabel Allende's work this Wednesday, with Allende serving as executive producer alongside American actress of Mexican origin Eva Longoria.

The story of The House of the Spirits is set in a Latin American country whose name is never mentioned, although it is easy to identify certain parallels with Chile, where Allende is from. Through three generations of women from the same family –Clara, Blanca, and Alba–, we witness the political and social changes in the country during the 20th century and how they impact the lives of the protagonists. Deeply rooted in magical realism, the story begins with the reading of the diaries of Clara del Valle, a singular girl who is capable of predicting the misfortunes of her surroundings and who, as an adult, will marry Esteban Trueba, a man of explosive temperament.

Prime Video's adaptation is an international production that features a cast with actors from both Latin America and Spain. In this regard, one of the notable names is Eduard Fernández, who plays Severo del Valle, Clara's father. Maribel Verdú also appears in a supporting role. But one of the big stars of the series is Nicole Wallace, one of the great youth idols of Spanish cinema thanks to the trilogy Culpables, romantic –and quite toxic– films also from Prime Video. The actress, with an American father and a Spanish mother, began to stand out with the series Skam España, and in The House of the Spirits she plays Clara in her young stage, when she gets married and becomes a mother.

Wallace, who has admitted that she didn't know the book until she was offered to do the series, explains that she believes women will particularly connect with the fiction. "[Watching the series ] You realize how many generations are needed for change to occur. It is very important not to forget it. My mother always says the phrase: 'It takes years and years to achieve a right and minutes for it to be taken away from you'. I think it's important to remember it and for people to connect with that," Wallace said at the presentation, who for the series adopts a Chilean accent.

The 90s version

It is not the first time that The House of the Spirits has made the leap to the screen. In 1993, a decade after the book's publication, an adaptation signed by Bille August and a cast full of Hollywood stars and almost entirely Anglo-Saxon premiered in cinemas. In that adaptation, Meryl Streep played Clara (Grace Gummer, the actress's daughter, played the character as a child) and Jeremy Irons played Esteban. The cast was rounded out by Winona Ryder and Antonio Banderas. The film was a critical and commercial failure and had to face protests over the absence of Latin American actors in the cast, a problem that the Prime Video series has rectified.

In fact, Isabel Allende has highlighted the importance of finally having a Spanish-language adaptation of her novel. "At that time [in the 90s], any film with commercial value had to be in English and with movie stars. So the film doesn't have the Chilean flavor that I thought I had given to the book. Now, when I've seen the miniseries, I've seen what it should always have been," she explained at the production's presentation.