Daughter of Fortune

An Oprah Book Club slection!Allende has created a masterpiece of historical fiction that is passionate adventurous and brilliantly insightful. . . . suspenseful and surprising. —Denver PostFrom the revered New York Times bestselling author of The House of the Spirits and A Long Petal of the Sea comes a passionate tale of one young woman''s epic journey to save her lover set against the chaos greed and promise of the 1849 California Gold Rush.Raised in the British colony of Valparaíso Chile English orphan Eliza Sommers meets and falls in love with the wildly inappropriate Joaquín Andieta a lowly clerk with ambitious dreams. When gold is discovered in the hills of northern California Chileans including Joaquín head north to seek their fortune. Eliza pregnant with Joaquín’s child leaves behind everything she knows to follow her lover.In the rough-and-tumble world of San Francisco Eliza must navigate a society dominated by greedy men. But with the help of her natural spirit and a good friend Chinese doctor Tao Chi’en Eliza soon comes to discover that her search for love has become a powerful coming of age story and a quest of personal freedom.