In her 2006 historical novel, Inés of My Soul, Isabel Allende gives a voice to Inés Suárez, a woman history books have thus far ignored. Inés lived large in sixteenth-century South America, where she was a conquistadora and the gobernadora of Chile. The book is structured as the memoir of Inés as an elderly woman, reflecting back on her life.

Her story begins in Extremadura, Spain, where she is a young seamstress. Inés falls in love with, and marries, the dashing Juan de Málaga, who is "one of those handsome, happy men no woman can resist at first, but later wishes another woman would win away because he causes so much pain." After her husband leaves for the New World, Inés decides that life couldn't be any worse, so she obtains permission to follow him.

Soon after arriving in the New World, Inés learns that Juan has died. Instead of returning to Spain as expected, Inés sees that her skills and enterprising attitude will serve her better in Peru. She quickly falls into a torrid love affair with Pedro de Valdivia, and together they set off to conquer the land that is now Chile, where he becomes the first royal governor. Because he has left a wife back in Spain, they can never marry, but she is his partner in every other way. When forced to defend herself later in life, Inés says, "I am the true gobernadora of Chile, and everyone knows how much they owe me. What would this accursed city be without me, anyway? I have dug irrigation ditches with my own hands; I have treated every sick and wounded person in the city; I have sown, harvested, and cooked so that no one would perish from hunger; and, as if it were nothing at all, I have wielded weapons like the best of the soldiers".

What is known about the real Inés Suárez has been defined only by the men in her life, since the only historical record of her is contained within the records of her first husband, her lover Pedro de Valdivia, and finally, her second husband Rodrigo de Quiroga. Allende fills in the rest from her imagination: "By researching the lives of the men that came with her, I could sort of visualize the time and the place and discover her."

In this novel, Allende exhibits her renowned flair for language by creating a world that is "one of overwhelming and threatening beauty, a world of refulgent light and sidereal shadows." Despite the gifted writing, some of her fans were disappointed in this novel. They criticized it for being mired in political detail, or objected to the brutal violence displayed by both the Spanish and the indigenous people. However, these elements are necessary to create a realistic picture of the world in which Inés lived. What is most remarkable about Inés of My Soul, and what makes the novel worth reading, is Allende's intriguing portrait of a vibrant and interesting woman who lived a very long time ago.