In 1843,a baby is left on the doorstep of Rose Sommers and her brother Jeremy, who live in the British colony of Valparaiso, Chile. Rose names the baby Eliza and raises her as part of the family. When Eliza falls in love with JoaquAEn Andieta, one of Jeremy''s delivery boys, news of the gold in California has just reached Chile. JoaquAEn, caught up in the popular fever, sets out to make a fortune up north, leaving behind Eliza, now pregnant with his child. Spirited and with a mind of her own, Eliza leaves her home in Valparaiso, and undertakes a dangerous sea voyage to San Francisco in search of her lover. What she finds instead is adversity and adventure and, through her own resourcefulness, an even more momentous journey to independence and freedom. When she finally hears news of JoaquAEn, Eliza must decide who her true love really is.

Autorentext

Isabel Allende is the author of twelve works of fiction, including the New York Times bestsellers Maya’s Notebook, Island Beneath the Sea, Inés of My Soul, Daughter of Fortune, and a novel that has become a world-renowned classic, The House of the Spirits. Born in Peru and raised in Chile, she lives in California.

Klappentext

An Oprah Book Club Selection!

From the New York Times bestselling author of The House of the Spirits, Isabelle Allende, comes a passionate tale of one young woman's quest to save her lover set against the chaos of the 1849 California Gold Rush.

Orphaned at birth, Eliza Sommers is raised in the British colony of Valparaíso, Chile, by the well-intentioned Victorian spinster Miss Rose and her more rigid brother Jeremy. Just as she meets and falls in love with the wildly inappropriate Joaquín Andieta, a lowly clerk who works for Jeremy, gold is discovered in the hills of northern California. By 1849, Chileans of every stripe have fallen prey to feverish dreams of wealth. Joaquín takes off for San Francisco to seek his fortune, and Eliza, pregnant with his child, decides to follow him.

As Eliza embarks on her perilous journey north in the hold of a ship and arrives in the rough-and-tumble world of San Francisco, she must navigate a society dominated by greedy men. But Eliza soon catches on with the help of her natural spirit and a good friend, the Chinese doctor Tao Chi’en. What began as a search for love ends up as the conquest of personal freedom.

A marvel of storytelling, Daughter of Fortune confirms once again Isabel Allende's extraordinary gift for fiction and her place as one of the world's leading writers.