My Name Is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende audiobook review portrait of a fiercely independent young woman

"Emilia del Valle's surname comes from her Chilean father, an aristocrat who seduced her mother when she was a novice nun and left before their child was born. Emilia owes her fiercely independent spirit to her liberal-minded stepfather Francisco Claro, whom she calls Papo, who encourages his stepdaughter to think for herself. In her late teens, Emilia writes a series of successful pulp fiction novels under the male pen name Brandon J Price."

"By the age of 23, she is a columnist at San Francisco's Daily Examiner; still writing as a man, she longs to do more serious work. Eventually, she is commissioned to travel to Chile, where the father she has never met lives, to cover the war. She is accompanied by a seasoned war reporter, Eric Whelan, with whom she begins a relationship, though the pair part company as they each go in search of their own stories."

"Told from Emilia's perspective, the novel is narrated by the Dominican actor Coral Pena, her reading underscoring our heroine's single-mindedness in overcoming the strictures imposed on 19th-century women. That the romantic subplot doesn't follow the usual trajectory is shown in the appearance of another narrator, Johnathan McClain, who reads a single chapter written from the perspective of Whelan. Back in San Francisco after the war, he reveals his future wife has simply vanished from the face of the Earth."

A late-19th-century historical drama follows Emilia del Valle, born illegitimately in San Francisco's Mission District to a Chilean aristocrat who seduced her mother when she was a novice nun. Raised by liberal stepfather Francisco Claro, Emilia develops a fiercely independent spirit and writes successful pulp fiction under the male pen name Brandon J Price. By 23 she is a Daily Examiner columnist and is commissioned to report on the 1891 Chilean civil war, traveling to Chile with war reporter Eric Whelan. Narration by Coral Pena and a single chapter by Johnathan McClain trace Emilia's ambitions, an unconventional romance, and her later mysterious disappearance.

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