Published By: Bloomsbury
Pages: 352
Released On: 06/05/2025
Emilia del Valle was always destined for great things. Abandoned at birth by her Chilean aristocrat father, Emilia comes of age in nineteenth-century San Francisco as an independent and fiercely ambitious young woman, decades ahead of her time. She will do whatever it takes to pursue her life’s passion for writing, even if it means publishing under a man’s name.
When Emilia lands a position as a journalist for the Daily Examiner, her unwavering sense of adventure – and newfound determination to survive in her own name – leads her to seize the chance to cover a brewing civil war in Chile alongside another talented reporter.
But the assignment offers Emilia more than just an opportunity to prove herself as a writer. Before long she finds herself on a treacherous, life-changing journey in a homeland she never knew, to uncover the truth about her father – and herself.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I mean, does Isabel Allende ever miss? I haven’t met a book of hers that I haven’t enjoyed. I’d say she has got better with each book, her experience is clear to see in her words. I agree with so many that she is a literary genius.
I’m not disregarding the plot, but bear with me. For me, where Isabel excels in this book is her characters. She creates and develops characters better and more consistently than many I tend to read. They’re so developed and well rounded and honest. They don’t feel like characters, they feel like people we know.
Her writing is mesmerising, from the exciting moments to the mundane. It’s lie magic.
It has slightly longer chapters than I would have liked, but that’s because I love short chapters, but it’s not a deal breaker with this book. When I read thrillers and crime novels for example, I think the short chapters help with the tension and fast-paced narrative. But this book is more about the characters, and so didn’t necessarily need to be fast-paced. So whilst I would have preferred shorter chapters, it doesn’t have too much of a negative impact on the story.
This is written in the first person – I tend to read third person – and I think that’s for its benefit, as it gives it a sort of diary quality which makes it more personal. As well as it being in a sort of first-person diary/letter format, within it, Emilia is writing newspaper articles, and so it’s almost like a story within a story within a story, a bit like Inception but a bit more manageable.
I’ve always said the reasons I love historical books – 17-1800s, governess in a big house – is where there are female characters standing up for themselves in a time they weren’t meant to. This one is set slightly later than that, the late 1800s, but I’ve got the same love for it. A woman making her way in a man’s world and unashamedly so. Emilia is a fabulous creation.
Normally when there’s a female character like this, it usually means that the men in the book come across as more negative. But for the most part, I liked the male characters in this book. They generally felt supportive to Emilia. Some characters were bigger than others but all seemed to play their part in the wider story.
I loved the exploration of Chile (not a surprise considering Allende drew up in Chile). It’s not a country I know well, or can even pretend to know well, and I can’t think of any books I’ve read set in Chile, other than Allende’s herself. And whilst I’m aware this is a novel and only a slight introduction to the country, and set a long time ago during a war, it really opened my eyes to the country and I am interested in finding out more about it.
My only less-than-positive point is that it felt a bit long. It was still incredibly enjoyable, expertly written, interesting characters, five star, and just a great thing to read. I felt 300 pages was just a tad too long for what is, in my opinion anyway, heavily a character study. So if it was cut down by say, 30-50 pages, I think it might have been slightly better but I can’t say anything bad about what is there.
Yes it is an historical book, a war novel. But for me, it feels very much like a love story; the love for your family and friends, for lovers, for yourself, for your country, and for what’s right.
It’s not the happiest of books, which is no surprise given the subject matter, but it doesn’t need to be happy to be excellent. And excellent is what this novel very much is.
Books By Your Bedside 