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, born in Peru and raised in Chile, is a novelist, feminist, and philanthropist. She is one of the most widely read authors in the world, having sold more than eighty million copies of her books across forty-two languages. She is the author of several bestselling and critically acclaimed books, including 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.

You can visit Isabel Allende at IsabelAllende.com or follow her on Instagram @AllendeIsabel, on Facebook at Facebook.com/IsabelAllende and on X @IsabelAllende

Klappentext

An Oprah Book Club selection!

"Allende has created a masterpiece of historical fiction that is passionate, adventurous, and brilliantly insightful. . . . suspenseful and surprising." -Denver Post

From 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.

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