I am trying to do a presentation for my Comp-Lit class and I was trying to remember the name of a short story so that I could present on that. It was one of the magical realism stories and involved a storyteller who got paid to make up a word that described each person perfectly so that it was that person's word only. A political figure may have kidnapped her and either wanted to hear his word or for her to write a speech for him. Does this sound familiar at all? The author may be Isabel Allende, but I'm not sure. It was definitely a South American writer.