My Name Is Emilia del Valle is another important historical fiction by Isabel Allende. This is story of Emilia who published under an assumed male name in the 1800s. But, craving more, she becomes a journalist after convincing an editor hire her. The story moved to Chile with an imminent civil war and her real and dangerous adventure begins. I was engaged following Emilia’s story and, as always, appreciated the author’s writing style and research. This will be a popular book club selection.

I've only read one other Isabel Allende book and I loved it. Her writing is fantastic and in that other book of hers, the characters were incredibly well developed. In this book, however, it's more a history lesson on the Chilean civil war. Allende's writing is still wonderful but this book was bogged down by the detailed text on the civil war and details around the events that were happening. Though the book was told through Emilia's voice, her character (and all others) were really lacking. The beginning of the book was promising...and the end of the book, though a bit far-fetched, was character focused...but the vast middle of the book was just war stuff. Emilia is a really plucky, ambitious, and independent main character and I'm really sad I didn't get to really know her. I was grateful this book was under 300 pages long. This one is a bit of a miss for me, but if you like historical fiction that focuses more on the history than the characters, you'd probably enjoy this! Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the advanced digital copy.

My Name is Emilia del Valle is fast solidifying Isabel Allende as a favorite author. Check content warnings, as their are a lot. Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the chance to read this via gifted eARC. All thoughts are my own and honest.

This is the second full length novel I’ve read by Allende and wow, this is such a powerful story. Emilia is a memorable heroine. She’s unapologetically herself and I love that the men in her life support her journalism career.

The majority of this book is set in Chile during the civil war of 1891 and I couldn’t help but think about Manuela Fingueret’s novel Daughter of Silence (set about 80 years later in Argentina) during one particular section. I was glad that my predictions for that section were wrong.

Reading this story reminded me why I fell in love with Latin American fiction.

This was an excellent read! It felt almost like a memoir about a strong journalist woman who defies expectations and the status quo. There’s some news articles interspersed as well, which I loved . it’s also historical fiction—particularly set during the Chilean Civil War. While it wasn’t slow paced per se—you get lots of action as Emilia puts herself in the midst of a battle—the chapters were longer than my usual reads.

I have always been a fan of Isabelle Allende. I like her writing style and always learn something new about history - in this case the civil war in Chile. It started of good but the story never really got to point of “I can’t wait to turn the page” and kind of fizzled at the end.

Isabel Allende's new work of historical fiction is the story of a woman named Emilia del Valle, written in memoir style. Emilia starts out her story on the day she turns seven on April 14, 1873, when her mother has her portrait taken and then tries to get in to see the man she claims is her daughter's father, Gonzalo Andrés del Valle.

Emilia grew up in San Francisco, raised by her mother, Molly Walsh, and her stepfather, the teacher Francisco Claro, but is always aware that some of her inherited roots are in Chile.

Emilia becomes a published writer at an early age, under an assumed male name, and eventually she talks her way into a job in journalism. When the chance comes to cover a civil war in Chile in 1891, her sense of adventure leads her where no sane person would want to go. I would describe Amelia as strong and smart, stubborn and brave, but taking many chances and thoughtlessly putting herself in danger. A quite remarkable woman, especially for the period of time in which she lived when women's lives were so restricted.

I found the parts of the story set in Chile to be the most interesting. We here in the USA are rarely taught about the history of South American countries. Allende does a remarkable job of describing the horrors of civil war, inspired by political and ideological differences. Oh, what mankind is capable of! Her love for the country of Chile shines through, with lush descriptions of some of the unspoiled lands to the south in stark contrast to the destruction of war-torn areas.

Many thanks to the author and publisher for providing me with an arc of this new novel via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

Imagining history is Isabel Allende’s superpower, and her newest offering begins exactly that way. Allende has a wonderful and vivid imagination, but she clearly does her research as well. In My Name is Emilia Del Valle, you will get to know young, turn-of-the-century San Francisco very well.
Her other superpower is to draw you into her narratives immediately, so that you must find out what happens to her characters. For me, the sign of excellence in writing is that the author has made you care about the characters, even if they are fictional.
Emilia Del Valle is a woman I can relate to. She is strong and independent, pursuing her own vision, even when that vision leads her into the civil war in Chile. She has chosen to become a journalist and has talked a reluctant newspaper editor into hiring her. She is not completely a paragon of human virtue, but is completely relatable as a human being.
In part two, instead of San Francisco you will get to know Chile. In part three you will feel the futility of war, especially civil war. Despite Emilia spending time with the “canteen girls” of the Chilean army (who cooked, washed and provided food), there is no sense of despair on her part.
Eventually, she is led back to Valpariso where she makes a discovery about herself and her closest friend in journalism. This is too long already, so I'll let you discover the rest for yourself. But this newest offering is nothing less than I would expect from the superb Isabel Allende.

I've read many of Isabel Allende's books and love her approach to historical fiction. This book, though, fell a little flat for me. Emilia is a strong female character and I appreciate her perseverance and intrepid nature. However, the story dragged a bit and there wasn't great character development overall.
I think still worth reading and I appreciated the opportunity to read an advanced eARC.

My Name is Emilia del Valle is the latest historical fiction novel by the esteemed Isabel Allende. The novel features Emilia del Valle, an independent, strong willed, progressive woman with a nomad’s heart, attempting to build a life as a female journalist in the late 1800’s. She is raised by her pious mother and beloved stepfather in the Mission District of San Francisco. At 25, she feels a pull to Chile to meet her biological father. She travels there for work and finds a real connection to the country. “Chilean blood weighed more on me than Irish blood.” She and her friend and fellow journalist, Eric, soon become embroiled in the Chilean Civil War of 1891. The description of the horrors of war were compelling.

I found the pacing of the story to be quite slow, but the author clearly showed her appreciation for her native Chile through Emilia’s eventual search for herself. “Emilia is a wild and bright spirit. I will never be able to hold her, I can only hope to accompany her and that love will keep us always together.” I have read and enjoyed many of Ms Allende’s novels. Although this was not my favorite, I would recommend it to specific historical fiction fans who enjoy slowly plotted character based stories. 3/5⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. Publishing date: 5/6/25

We all have our beginnings.

With this in mind, Isabel Allende takes to the page with what she certainly does best.......storytelling in its purest form. If you've ever read Allende before, you know how she can weave patterns into the lives of her characters and then settle them into questionable actions and reactions.

Molly Walsh stood with firm feet in the spirituality of her calling. It's 1866 in San Francisco and all Molly ever wanted was to become a nun. She was due to take her final vows. That is until Molly came face-to-face with a certain handsome Chilean aristocrat boasting promises lined with roses. Thereafter, Molly was left with broken vows and a child on the way.

Enter Emilia del Valle, Molly's daughter. Molly provided for Emilia as best as she could. Emilia grew to be a headstrong and confident young woman. It was Emilia's stepfather who provided her with maps and literature and opened the world to her. Emilia decides to leave home and venture sinto New York City. It's here that she applies for a journalist job at The Daily Examiner.

And with that, Emilia is sent to Chile as a war correspondent alongside Eric Whelan. Allende brings the story to life as Emilia tries to acclimate herself to a country torn in two by the ways of the past colliding with the revolution gazing at the promises of the future. Allende knows her Chilean history alongside her incredible research.

We'll travel through fields of the wounded and the sharp realization of so many casualities. It's the armed women who tended to these individuals tettering between life and death. And throughout, we experience the roles of women relegated to the lower tiers of society. Emilia's direct contact with these women set her own solid impressions and reporting of the brutalities of this war.

My Name Is Emilia Del Valle reflects a constant search for identity. Emilia tries to frame herself into the expectations of her mother while grasping for a sense of what is her own composite of self. It's a splendid experience for both lover of history and lover of the written word. Isabel Allende leaves no part of your soul untouched.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley foran honest review. My thanks to Random House and to the talented Isabel Allende for the opportunity.

4 stars for a historical fiction book about a civil war in Chile in 1891. The author was born in Peru and raised in Chile. She now lives in the US. I have read and enjoyed two of her previous books. The protagonist is Emilia del Valle Claro. She establishes herself as an author under the pen name Brandon J. Price, first writing dime novels and then getting hired as a newspaper columnist. The editor agrees to send her and 1 other reporter, Eric Whelan, to Chile, to cover the civil war.
There was an actual civil war in Chile in 1891 and many of the events and persons in the book are actual historical figures, including the Chilean President, José Manuel Emiliano Balmaceda Fernández.
The war arose out of a dispute between the Chilean Congress and Balmaceda over who he could appoint to his cabinet. The army sided with the President and the navy supported the Congress.
The forces supporting the Congress won and there was a massacre of the President's supporters. Emilia participates in one of the battles as a nurse, while writing articles critical of the rebels from the Congress.
There are descriptions of people being killed in battles and in the massacre, but not overly graphic.
One quote by Emilia: "I no longer know what I witnessed and how much I only imagined; it is all a jumbled confusion of horror in my memory. I had never seen violence and death up close--nothing in my twenty-five years of existence had prepared me for so much barbarism, so much suffering."
The translation was excellent.
Thank you Amy Jackson at Random House Publishing Group for sending me this eARC through NetGalley.
#MyNameIsEmiliadelValle #NetGalley

Pub Date May 06 2025

Emilia grows up in San Francisco in the late 1800s. Not one to conform to society, Emilia begins to write dime novels under a male pseudonym. She eventually gets hired by a newspaper to write human interest stories. When a civil war in Chile breaks out, she convinces her editor and parents to let her travel to Chile to accompany another corespondent, Eric, to cover the war. At the request of her mother, Emilia is also in search of her birth father she never knew who is believed to have returned to Chile.

I enjoyed learning about the Chilean civil war, which I knew nothing about. I admired Emilia’s determination and fortitude. I enjoyed journeying along with her as she traveled and also grew as a person. As usual, Allende writes a beautiful story.

If you enjoy historical fiction, a strong female character, or are a fan of Isabel Allende, then I would recommend this book.

My Name Is Emilia del Valle is a deep exploration of self-discovery, set against the vivid backdrop of 19th-century societal constraints and the turbulence of the Chilean Civil War. While the historical setting and Allende's characteristic attention to detail provide rich texture to the narrative, the real heart of the story lies in Emilia's personal journey. We should all journey like Emilia to truly find ourselves at least once in our life. Her determination to defy convention and carve out her identity is inspiring, and her growth resonates deeply, culminating in an ending that feels both satisfying and hopeful. Though I found the timeline and pacing occasionally challenging, the story's message—that we must all embark on our own journeys of self-understanding—left a lasting impression. This novel is a powerful reminder of the courage it takes to confront both the external forces and inner truths that shape our destinies.

My Name is Emilai Del Valle
In the mid 1860s, Emilia’s mother, Molly Walsh, was training to be a nun when she was seduced by a young Chilean aristocrat visiting San Francisco. After Molly told him of her condition, he disappeared. Molly married a co-worker who adopted Emilia and raised her.
In an effort to earn money, Emilia later started writing short books under a pseudonym. When she decided to write for the San Francisco Examiner, she retained the pseudonym. However when a civil war broke out in Chile, Emilia got permission to travel there with a male reporter and write human interest stories under her own name.
The brutal war ranged on during her visit but she was able to meet her real father and be acknowledged by him on his death bed.
This historical fiction book is written from the point of view of Emilia. It has many brutal descriptions of the war and its victims. The author is from Chile and wrote a fictitious story about a real war that took place in the 1891. The war was between the President of Chile who was backed by European interests and the Congress which had the support of the Chilean people.
This book was interesting but I found the descriptions of the war and its victims to be very graphic. I have read and enjoyed several other books by Allende.
I received this ARC from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Ballantine for the eARC!

This is a beautiful, coming-of-age story of a young woman defying the norms of late 1800s society to chase her dreams. Emilia del Valle has known from a young age that her father is a mysterious Chilean man who, after a brief tryst with her mother, disappeared and has refused to acknowledge her existence. Her mother's obsession with getting him to recognize his daughter has not leaked into Emilia, who is perfectly happy with her stepfather, Papo, and has no real desire to find her real father. Through the support of her mother and stepfather, she grows into a strong-willed, independent woman, gets herself hired as a journalist at a reputable newspaper, travels alone on a train to New York to write character pieces, and then travels to Chile to cover the civil war there - all things that were considered, at best, improper for a young, single woman at the time. But Emilia doesn't take no for an answer and consistently asserts herself as just as capable of any man. While in Chile, she covers the war (despite being told by her editor to let her male counterpart handle the war pieces, while she was just to handle the character pieces), and gets far more personally involved than she originally intended to. Through several months of living in and reporting on this war-torn country, she learns more about herself, her father, and what she wants her future to be.

This is only the second Allende book I've read after The House of the Spirits, and I once again enjoyed her lyrical writing and storytelling. It was nice to read about the depictions of 1800s era San Francisco, a place I lived myself for a few years. I also liked the chance to read about a period of history - the Chilean Civil War of 1891 - that I previously knew little about. She deftly wove together Emilia's story against this backdrop in the format of a personal memoir that Emilia is writing herself, giving us insight into her thoughts and feelings. Overall, this was an enjoyable read that I would recommend to any fellow historical fiction lovers.

This book starts out strong with the type of narrative we’ve come to expect from Isabel Allende. We meet a colorful cast of characters including some very strong women - a trademark of Allende’s writing. The story is interesting and captivating - until the focus shifts to Chile and its civil war of 1891. The pace of the story shifts, and we are faced with what seem to be interminable descriptions of the government, the military, and battles. After this, the book never regains the beauty and joy of its opening chapters.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I don’t typically gravitate toward historical fiction, but I’ve been in a season of branching out more into the genre—and I’m so glad I did. I love a story about a woman discovering her roots and reconnecting with her father. With glimpses of San Francisco history, war, and emotional family encounters, this book offered a bit of everything.

Thank you Random House and Netgalley for this arc!

Imagining a woman trying to break into a traditionally male job of news reporter provided the most interest for me. The steps she had to agree to in order to be published were silly by today’s standards. But the biggest part of the novel concerned the Chilean civil war where so many incidents seemed unlikely. Somehow the ending didn’t really seem plausible to me either. As usual, the writing is beautifully poetic with descriptions of both place and people well written.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the ARC to read and review.

I loved the beginning of this book. The characters, pacing, and plot drew me in. But then Emilia went off to cover the Chilean revolution and I lost interest. The novel is well written, and I wouldn’t hesitate to dig into another work by this author. But this one wasn’t for me.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I'm hovering between a 3 and a 4 for this book.

While the historical aspects, childhood background, and immersion are masterfully done in this book, it lost me with a major disconnect from the character of Emilia. She feels so distant from herself, which is the weirdest thing in a first-person narrative. A lot of the emotional and romantic instances come across as merely words on a page, providing just an outline of the emotions the characters should be feeling. I felt more connected to Emilia's parents' story than to her, but that just demonstrates the masterful writing in the first half of the book, particularly in relation to her background. The standout element in the first half is the growth of the protagonist- her mistakes, whether well-intentioned or not, and her progress- something that many "strong female protagonist" novels throw out the window to simulate her strength. In the second half, the Chilean civil war is incredibly well-described: immersive and haunting in its depiction of war and Emilia's experiences, showcasing the author's true writing talent. The ending significantly redeems the disjointed writing, adding many more layers to Emilia's character, and feels reminiscent of a certain beloved character from Where the Crawdads Sing. Wait, was I baited into liking this book?

I'd recommend this to people who enjoy strong-willed, opinionated female protagonists and well-researched historical fiction. I think this is the kind of book I might sit with and perhaps rate higher than I currently do: 3.5 rounded up.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the ARC!