My Name is Emilia Del Valle, by Isabel Allende

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 Isabel Allende has written another captivating historical novel with a strong woman at its center. This time, the backdrop is the Chilean Civil war of 1891. It is also about one young woman's struggle to become an important story teller in her own right, under her own name.

Emilia is an unusually smart and brave young woman, who must behave more assertively than most women of her time, to become a journalist in the San Francisco of the 1880s.  When war breaks out in Chile, she actually succeeds in becoming a war correspondent. It does help that she speaks Spanish. 

There are multiple stories housed in this novel.  There is also the story of Molly Walsh, her mother, which will inform a large part of Emilia's life. After a loving childhood and an excellent education aided by her kind adopted father, Emilia is still not prepared to see war in a distant country, let alone be in the midst of battle. 

The Chilean Civil War comes terrifyingly alive in these pages. It's a brutal, sad story that almost kills its heroine and does end many who she has come to care about. In the end, Emilia struggles to come to herself again and make her own decision about what comes next for her. 

I enjoy Isabel Allende's writing and her stories, and this one was memorable. My reservations about this latest novel are minimal. That it did not spell out Emilia's next chapter is a perfectly good decision, even if it surprised me. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good historical fiction novel. 

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review Isabel Allende's latest novel. 





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