Isabel Allende's Haiti book 'not a cynical cash cow'

Chilean author Isabel Allende has confessed to feeling worried that she will be judged for having her latest book, which is about slavery in Haiti, translated into English so soon after the country was hit by a disastrous earthquake.

She claimed that the timing of the translation of Island Beneath the Sea was just a 'terrible coincidence'.

The author, who also wrote the best-selling book The House of the Spirits, said: 'I felt bad that the book was going to come out now and that it might look as if I was taking advantage of the circumstances, but on the other hand it seems important that Haiti is in the news, that it's on the map again and that people are talking about Haiti, a marvellous country in need of help.'

Allende claimed that she intended to set the book in New Orleans, but following the trail of research that preceded the novel landed her in the impoverished Caribbean country.

This week Allende told the Sydney Morning Herald that as a feminist she does not want men and women to be equal, but merely wants them to enjoy the same rights as each other.

She told the newspaper that the last thing that she wanted was to have a penis as she would not know what to do with it.