Daughter of Fortune: A Novel [B1164]

2006 PB in nice clean condition. From NYT bestselling author of The House of the Spirits, Isabelle Allende, comes a passionate tale of one young woman's quest to save her lover set against the chaos of the 1849 California Gold Rush. Orphaned at birth, Eliza Sommers is raised in the British colony of Valparaíso, Chile, by the well-intentioned Victorian spinster Miss Rose and her more rigid brother Jeremy. Just as she meets and falls in love with the wildly inappropriate Joaquín Andieta, a lowly clerk who works for Jeremy, gold is discovered in the hills of northern California. By 1849, Chileans of every stripe have fallen prey to feverish dreams of wealth. Joaquín takes off for San Francisco to seek his fortune, and Eliza, pregnant with his child, decides to follow him. As Eliza embarks on her perilous journey north in the hold of a ship and arrives in the rough-and-tumble world of San Francisco, she must navigate a society dominated by greedy men. But Eliza soon catches on with the help of her natural spirit and a good friend, the Chinese doctor Tao Chi'en. What began as a search for love ends up as the conquest of personal freedom. A marvel of storytelling, Daughter of Fortune confirms once again Isabel Allende's extraordinary gift for fiction and her place as one of the world's leading writers.

From the many recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "My favorite book from Isabel Allende!"; "I just love this book so much! It can be wordy and is a bit long, but the writing is so good that you actually feel like you are there! It's so cool to read about the gold rush! Also, all the characters are so rich and the author is great at weaving humor throughout! I loved it just as much as the first time I read it!"; "Loved this, so fun, so interesting, dramatic, and honest. I love that the writing is not so . . literary. It's very accessible and clear. I really appreciated the attention given to all the women, who are fully formed and diverse in their desires and goals. Especially the prostitutes and sex slaves, the choices they make and the ones they don't. It's a bit of a frame story, with future Eliza reflecting on her life, which means we know very early on what will happen, but I don't think it takes away from the satisfaction of the ending."; "Another beautiful book by Allende, the story, the details, the historical framework, the description that makes you feel like you're inside the book, between loves of all kinds, carnal, friendly, maternal, I loved it."; "Loved this book. This is an amazing historical novel which explores life in the 1850's in Chili, China, on board a ship sailing from Chili to California, San Francisco, and the gold fields of California. It explores love, betrayal, compassion, and racism, caste systems, tradition, and freedom."