My name is Emelia Del Valle

Emilia Del Valle lived with her mother and step-father in San Francisco. She wanted to be a writer and began her career writing dime novels under the pen-name of Brandon J Price. She then worked as a columnist for a daily newspaper but because she was female she could not use her real name. Emilia eventually took the opportunity to travel to Chile to write columns relating to the unrest in that country. This time she was allowed to use her own name but shared the writing with Eric Whelan, a journalist at the newspaper.

Emilia knew that her father lived in Chile but she had had no contact with him except for a photo taken on her fourth birthday which her mother forwarded to her father. When her mother discovered that Emilia was going to Chile she insisted that Emilia should locate her father and give him a letter that she had written to him. Emilia gradually realises that she needs to know more about the country of her father.

As well as covering the challenges faced by Emilia, much of the novel provides graphic depictions of life during the civil war that occurred in Chile in 1891. 

My Name is Emilia Del Valle by Isabel Allende begins slowly, but eventually the pace increases as the book develops into an interesting work of historical fiction as well as the study of a young woman finding herself in a world ruled by men as she attempts to follow the life she wants.