The author began writing this novel when she received news of her ninety-year-old grandfather's illness and impending death. The novel's events begin at the end of the nineteenth century, in a city with no name in South America. It narrates the lives of the Trueba family: their love affairs, ambitions, and spiritual quests, their relationships with each other, and their role in the events of their time and history—a history that became a destiny that surpassed them all. The novel was adapted into a film in 1993. Since its publication, it has swept the market and achieved best-selling titles. In fact, this story is what propelled its author to stardom. The author won the Panoramic Literature Prize for this novel, and it has been translated into nearly thirty languages! Some critics believe that this novel has social and political dimensions, while others believe that it recounts real events with a touch of fantasy.