Daughter of Fortune

By: Isabel Allende

Narrated by: Blair Brown, Isabel Allende

Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

From the New York Times best-selling 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.

©2014 Isabel Allende (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

Compelling, but ultimately disappointing

There is so much about this story that is beautifully rendered, particularly in the first half, which takes place in Chile. Allende has an obvious affinity for the complex colonial history of Valparaíso and a deep appreciation for the landscape and culture. Every step through the seaside city seems richly lived, setting the characters within a landscape that animates and challenges them. But the rendering of Gold Rush California is flatter, which is surprising given the similarities between the two cities.

At one point, in the 1850-1854 section that ends the book, as Eliza Sommers and her friend Tao Chi’en walk from Chinatown to Union Square to have pictures made, I imagined the dizzying walk down Geary St. and wondered how the city's white shoppers would have reckoned with the Chinese/Chilean duo. These sorts of details were not part of the story, as they had been when Eliza attended a Catholic festival or met with her lover in a hillside chapel in Valparaiso. This led me to google information on when the square was developed. I learned from a "History of Union Square" that "Throughout the 1850s, the Square, like all public squares in San Francisco, remained undeveloped. It was used primarily for dumping, by occasional squatters, and for sand-lot baseball games." So much for excruciating research!

Character development is the real strength of the story, and Allende offers vivid portraits of Eliza, her adoptive mother, Rose and her brothers, as well as Tao Chi’en and a host of other characters who would appear less three-dimensions under the pen of lesser writers.

The ending is abrupt, even after 13 hours, leaving many unanswered questions to the reader's imagination. But the story is narrated with great beauty by Blair Brown.

Great story

I thoroughly enjoyed this audio book. I liked the narrator and the story kept me interested the entire book

I never knew which direction the story would take!

I struggled to get into it initially. But once I did, it was enlightening and entertaining

Enjoyed and learned alot along the way

Having lived in San Francisco area and being a fan of Isabel Allende I found this story very intriguing. Many times I would look up facts or places in the story. I loved the parts about Chinatown and the characters were gritty, interesting and human. I didn’t love the ending but I understand the authors notion that the story ended there.

Interesting pov of gold rush

Really liked getting to hear a story from an unusual perspective and the characters are very good.

A fantastic piece of historical fiction

Loved it. Well written and read. An exciting tale of love and what really matters.

Daughter of Fortune

Isabel Allende is an excellent storyteller.
This is my very first time listening one of her books and definitely got hook with the way she writes.
I won’t stop listening at this book until I finished.
Now I just downloaded the next of this series ‘Portrait in Sepia’, I can’t wait to start listen it.

I’m a longtime fan of Allende’s books

I love Allende’s books, and the magic doesn’t wear thin. Blair Brown is an excellent narrator and this story, as so many of Allende’s other books, grabs hold and doesn’t let go. I’m getting ready to listen to Portrait in Sepia next and look forward to hearing from Eliza and her family.

Did not Disappoint

I am always looking forward to reading or listening to the style of writing of Isabel Allende. The narrator 's voice was perfect. I would have like to know more of the characters future.

Use narrators that are fluent in foreign languages.

A narrator should pronounce Spanish words properly. Annoying. Otherwise a good depiction of the gold rush.