Adult Book Club: “My Name Is Emilia del Valle” by Isabel Allende
This month’s book is My Name Is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende (324 pages)
From the Publisher: In San Francisco in 1866, an Irish nun, abandoned following a torrid relationship with a Chilean aristocrat, gives birth to a daughter named Emilia del Valle. Raised by a loving stepfather, Emilia grows into an independent thinker and a self-sufficient young woman. To pursue her passion for writing, she is willing to defy societal norms. At the age of seventeen, she begins to publish pulp fiction using a man’s pen name.
She turns to journalism, convincing an editor at The Daily Examiner to hire her. As she proves herself, her restlessness returns, until an opportunity arises to cover a brewing civil war in Chile. She seizes it, and while there she meets her estranged father and delves into the violent confrontation in the country where her roots lie.
The book is a riveting tale of self-discovery and love from one of the most masterful storytellers of our time,
About the Author: Isabel Allende, born in Peru and raised in Chile, is a novelist, feminist, and philanthropist. She is the author of several bestselling and critically acclaimed books, including The Wind Knows My Name, Violeta, A Long Petal of the Sea, The House of the Spirits, Of Love and Shadows, Eva Luna, and Paula. In addition to her work as a writer, Isabel devotes much of her time to human rights causes. She has received fifteen honorary doctorates, been inducted into the California Hall of Fame, and received the PEN Center Lifetime Achievement Award and the Anisfield-Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, and in 2018, she received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation. She lives in California with her husband and dogs.
The Adult Book Club meets in-person at the Library on the second Friday of each month. If you have questions about the Book Club, please email Linda Reimer: [email protected]
