Daughter of Fortune - Isabel Allende

Daughter of Fortune was a chance find; I had never heard of the author, Isabel Allende, I didn't know that she was a writer in the Spanish language from Chile, but what a find this book was. Having purchased it in one of those Times book sales that are such good value, it sat on my shelf: the cover is unappealing, the book purported to be romantic fiction - I am not a fan of romantic fiction. Or rather I should say, I am not a fan of unrealistic, materialistic Mills and Boon type romantic fiction and Daughter of Fortune is certainly not a book in that genre. To add to my initial preconceptions that this was a book that I was not going to enjoy, it is of ...  Read the complete review

The only problem with this book, was that I couldn't put it down. Daughter Of Fortune is an utterly compelling tale that follows the adventures of Eliza, a foundling girl who runs away from her adopted family to follow her lover. Crossing continents and cultures, this is a magnificent tale of love and determination. Being something of a fan of Chinese fiction, I was both impressed and delighted by the long section following the life of Tao, the Chinese doctor who helps Eliza stow away on a ship, and who remains her friend once they find themselves in America. There are outlwas and romances, whores, humantiy, barbarity, foolhardniness and a little magic - all the ...  Read the complete review

This is a wonderful tale of adventure, love, loss and self-discovery, set in the nineteenth century. Its heroine is Eliza, a girl left as a baby to the care of an English family in the city of Valparaiso, Chile. Her benefactors, the Sommers, have their own secrets and eccentricities: Rose, who adopts her, has vowed at twenty not to marry. In twenty years, the young Eliza crosses the world in a life of hardships and marvels. Constantly through the book we meet characters outcast or fugitive from their own societies, each with dark pasts or tragedies. Rose Sommers conceals a past that forced her to leave England, along with her reserved brother, to found a ...  Read the complete review