Product Description

Best selling international author, Isabel Allende tackles her homeland head-on in this staggering, epic romance. 'Portrait in Sepia' is both a magnificent historical novel set at the end of the nineteenth century in Chile and a marvellous family saga peopled by characters from 'Daughter of Fortune' and 'The House of the Spirits', two of Allende's most celebrated novels. As a young girl, Aurora del Valle suffered a brutal trauma that has shaped her character and erased from her mind all recollection of the first five years of her life. Raised by her ambitious grandmother, the regal and commanding Paulina del Valle, she grows up in a privileged environment, free of the limitations that circumscribe the lives of women at that time, but tormented by terrible nightmares. When she finds herself alone at the end of an unhappy love affair, she decides to explore the mystery of her past, to discover what it was, exactly, all those years ago, that had such a devastating effect on her young life. Richly detailed, epic in scope, this engrossing story of the dark power of hidden secrets is intimate in its probing of human character, and thrilling in the way it illuminates the complexity of family ties.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #192107 in Books
• Published on: 2002-07-08
• Original language: Spanish
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Isabel Allende has established herself as one of the most consummate of all modern storytellers, a reputation that is confirmed in her novel Portrait in Sepia. Allende offers a compelling saga of the turbulent history, lives and loves of late 19th-century Chile, drawing on characters from her earlier novels, The House of Spirits and Daughter of Fortune.

The book's heroine is Aurora del Valle, who "came into the world one Tuesday in the autumn of 1880, in San Francisco". As Aurora sets out to retell her own history and that of her family, she admits "there are so many secrets in my family that I may never have time to unveil them all: truth is short-lived, watered down by torrents of rain". In typical Allende fashion, Portrait in Sepia is crammed with love, desire, tragedy and dark family secrets, all played out against the dramatic backdrop of revolutionary Chile. Aurora's mother is a Chilean-Chinese beauty, whilst her father is a dissolute scion of the wealthy and powerful del Valle family. At the heart of Aurora's slow, painful recreation of her childhood towers one of Allende's greatest fictional creations, the heroine's grandmother, Paulina del Valle. An "astute, bewigged Amazon with a gluttonous appetite", Paulina holds both the del Valle family and Allende's novel together, as she presides over Aurora's adolescence in a haze of pastries, taffeta and overweening love.

One of the most interesting aspects of the novel is Allende's decision to turn her heroine into a photographer, bringing together the written word and the photograph as a way of holding onto the past: "through photography and the written word I try desperately to conquer the transitory nature of my existence, to trap moments before they evanesce, to untangle the confusion of my past". There is little confusion in Allende's elegantly crafted and hugely enjoyable novel. --Jerry Brotton

Review
'You'll find it hard not to be beguiled by the charm and ingenuity of Allende's storytelling.' The Times 'Though its story is the life of Aurora del Valle, a privileged young girl growing up in 19th century Chile, its subject is history, and the way in which the lives of people and the lives of countries exist in uneasy limbo, caught between the shadows of the past and the mysteries of the future. It's a world of secrets and uneasy truces; all that is certain is death, and all that is valuable is love.' Jeremy Poolman, Daily Mail 'If you were thrilled by "The House of the Spirits", you'll love this.' Marie Claire 'A wonderful, wide-ranging story, which moves back to Chile, and is told in a clever mix of first and third person. Allende's dramatic descriptions of hand-to-hand combat and bloody battle scenes are every bit as vivid and physical as her descriptions of wild passionate love-making. A compulsively readable, colourful, informative and entertaining novel.' Sunday Tribune 'Written with energy, optimism and joie de vivre. A refreshingly opinionated look at the history of Chile and San Francisco and an exceptionally lively and entertaining story.' Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, Irish Times 'Constructed with breathtaking timing and skill. Full of warmth and incident, "Portrait in Sepia" is anything but a still and grainy image from an historical past. As the closing of what is in effect a trilogy, it confirms Allende as one of the finest and most entertaining novelists now writing.' Pat Boran, Irish Independent

From the Publisher
sequel to Daughter of Fortune

Customer Reviews

Fascinating read
What a wonderful book this is. It is difficult to imagine that this is a work of translation because it reads so fluidly. I have found this to be a captivating story, linking the worlds of North and South America during the 1800's. Not only am I reading about the convoluted relationships of this extended family, I am also learning about the history of South America in a completely unexpected way.

I would highly recommend this book as a genteel and beautifully written work.

Absolutely wonderful
On the same line of the other books written by Isabel Allende, in this book she takes you through the lives of fascinating characters, seamless going from one storyline to another and intertwining them to create a central plot with her wonderful and unmistakable style. This book is a true pleasure to the senses. One of the best books I have read.

All talk and no black pyjama trousers
This was my first Isabelle Allende and I probably chose the wrong one. The only McGuffin driving the plot is Aurora's nightmare and frankly by the end I didn't care what the resolution was. The main character just does not give you enough to make you care about her and the other characters are two-dimensional stereotypes. By the end, it felt like I was reading a book outline which needed to have the characters fleshed out and a plot backbone inserted.

I can only assume that readers who enjoyed this are feeling an after-glow from previous (and I assume much better) Allende works.