Daughter of Fortune

By: Isabel Allende

Narrated by: Isabel Allende, Blair Brown

From the New York Times 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.

Such colorful and diverse characters

Enjoyed the ebb and flow of the story. Easy reading. Well described characters.
Kept the reader guessing.

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.

Fantástico

An enthralling historical fiction tale with captivating characters of all sorts and cultures. I loved learning of the Valparaiso, Chile customs of the time as well as the beginnings of San Francisco, CA. Truly magnificent. Muchísimas gracias!

Good writing

The authors did a great job creating mental pictures with her words. The story was interesting but I personally wouldn’t read it again.

Great story

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