The House of the Spirits: Epilogue Summary & Analysis

“My grandfather died last night,” Alba writes. Esteban died peacefully in her arms; he was happy and lucid, and he wasn’t in any pain. Since Esteban’s death, Alba has opened Clara’s bedroom, and she sits writing in a notebook in the middle of the room, a canary in a cage in the corner and Barrabás’s head staring at her from the rug below. When Alba arrived back at the big house on the corner, she went immediately to the library, where she knew Esteban would be waiting, and ran into his arms. They hugged and cried, and he said he was getting them out of the country, but Alba refused.  She would be like a tree chopped down at Christmastime without her country, Alba said. 

Esteban knew that Alba was really waiting for Miguel, and when he said as much, she was shocked that he even knew about Miguel. After Alba’s arrest, Miguel showed up at the big house on the corner and tried to help Esteban find her. It was Miguel’s idea to go to Tránsito Soto in the first place, Esteban said. Alba told her grandfather everything. After her hand became infected, she was put in a clinic where the doctor hated her and refused to give her painkillers, but a kind male nurse took pity on her and slipped her medicine. It was that nurse who told her that Amanda was dead. Amanda was loyal to Miguel to the end and never told the police anything about her brother.

Alba told Esteban how the police took her to a concentration camp for women, where the women watched over each other and never let her be alone. She told him about Ana Díaz, who gave Alba a notebook to write in and helped her to remember that she wasn’t the only woman who was raped. After a few days, the police dumped Alba in a street near the city, where a young boy helped her to his tenement house. There, the boy’s mother sat with Alba all night, waiting for curfew to pass. That night, Alba understood that the evil of men like Esteban García can’t destroy the spirit of such remarkable women.  

When Alba returned home, Esteban went to work fixing up the big house on the corner. It was thoroughly cleaned, and a fresh coat of paint applied, and even the garden was replanted. Esteban and Alba went together to buy new birds in cages, and Alba put fresh flowers in the vases, just as she did when she was a child. It was Esteban’s idea to write their story down, and after writing all he had to say, Esteban laid down in Clara’s bed. At first, Clara was “a mysterious glow,” but as Esteban died and slowly let go of his anger, she finally appeared, looking as she did in the prime of her life. He died muttering Clara’s name.

In the doghouse, Alba dreamed of seeking revenge on Esteban García for all he had done to her, but now her anger has softened. The day Esteban Trueba raped Pancha García in the bushes, he started a chain of events that must be completed, Alba says. Now, the grandson of that woman has raped the granddaughter of the rapist. Alba wonders if, years from now, her own grandson will attack García’s granddaughter in the bushes and continue the “unending tale of sorrow, blood, and love.” Alba understands that everyone—even Esteban García—has reasons for being the way they are. 

Alba writes in the notebook, just as Clara did, because memory fails and life is short. It is difficult to see how events are connected to each other when they are quickly passing by, which is why Clara kept her notebooks. Alba is determined to “break that terrible chain” started by Esteban Trueba in the bushes with Pancha García, but for now, she waits for Miguel and better times. Alba carries a child she knows is a girl, and while she doesn’t know who the child’s father is, the important thing is that she is Alba’s daughter. Clara wrote in her notebooks so Alba could one day reclaim the past, and Alba does the same now. “Barrabás came to us by sea…” she begins.