My Name is Emilia del Valle

Isabel Allende brings her considerable talents to the page again with her most recent historical fiction book My Name is Emilia del Valle. Her ability to capture time and place and write fascinating, fully-developed characters - especially strong female protagonists, is exemplary.

Emilia del Valle is the product of a seductive encounter between her mother Molly Walsh, a devout Irish woman pursuing the religious life, and a wealthy Chilean aristocrat named Gonzalo Andres del Valle, who promptly moves on. While her mother harbors deep resentment towards Mr. del Valle, Emilia is raised instead by Francisco Claro, a wonderful, supportive stepfather who encourages her passion for writing.

Moving from writing dime store novels under a male pseudonym to working for a newspaper, Emilia uses her connection to Chile and her friend, fellow San Francisco journalist Eric Whelan, to convince her publishing editor to allow her to write about the growing Chilean War under her own name. He sends Eric to cover the war and assigns Emilia to cover human interest stories, though she desperately wants to be where the action is.

What follows is headstrong Emilia throwing herself into the midst of war and peril, covering the side of the current Chilean president, while Eric covers the side of the rebels. It’s fraught with danger, tension and graphic war detail, as she embeds herself closer and closer to the action, and I felt like I was right there with her. In the midst of this, she also finds her birth father and his extended family and discovers unexpected love.

Where the book worked best for me is the chapters before and after the war, where I could see Emilia’s relationships with certain characters more clearly and spend time getting to know them. I didn’t know how war-heavy and politically detailed the book was going to be for the bulk of the story, though, and I struggled more with those parts. It spares no detail on the brutalities of war, so if you’re sensitive to that, it won’t be the book for you. 

It’s a vividly detailed, emotional story with wonderful writing and fascinating characters that I can recommend to fans of historical fiction, war stories and human drama. While I enjoyed it, I didn’t connect with Emilia quite as much as I’d hoped and found the war focus and lengthy chapters a little daunting, but Allende still managed to keep me turning those pages!

★★★ ½ 

Thanks to Random House Publishing - Ballantine, NetGalley and author Isabel Allende for this digital ARC to honestly review. It’s out now.