My Name Is Emilia del Valle

In the riveting latest from Allende (The Wind Knows My Name), a journalist finds love and danger while covering the Chilean Civil War. Emilia del Valle was raised in San Francisco’s Mission District by her Irish American mother, Molly Walsh, who left her life of Catholic religious service after an affair with Emilia’s birth father, Gonzalo Andrés del Valle, a wealthy Chilean playboy. In 1892, 23-year-old Emilia is hired as a columnist for the Daily Examiner and sent to Chile to cover the war along with journalist Eric Whalen, with whom she begins a romance. The fearless Emilia lands an interview with Chile’s besieged president and joins a group of “canteen girls” who assist pro-government troops with food and water and nurse the wounded. The war’s horrors come to life under Emilia’s unerring and steady eye, as she records atrocities committed by both sides. The thrilling and revelatory wartime narrative dovetails with a poignant family drama, as Emilia manages to track down her elusive father, who still carries the guilt of abandoning her and Molly. Allende’s writing is as lush as ever, such as her description of a tense funeral scene near the end, when “hatred had dissolved like salt in water.” The author’s legions of fans will love this. Agent: Johanna Castillo, Writers House. (May)