DAUGHTER OF FORTUNE - Harper Collins

'Eliza, the engaging and independent heroine of Isabel Allende's latest novel, is a foundling. Discovered on the doorstep of the British Import and Export Company in 1830's Chile, she is eagerly adopted by Miss Rose Sommers, who keeps house for her two brothers, a businessman and a sea-captain. But although Rose is determined to turn her into a proper English lady, headstrong Eliza determinedly charts her own course. Barely 16, she falls hopelessly in love with an impoverished young revolutionary called Joaquin Andieta. When he disappears to seek his in the great Californian gold rush, she stows away on one of her uncle's ships, crowded with adventures and whores all heading for San Francisco...A shrewdly entertaining and often memorable description of a new world in the making.' Sunday Times. 'If you like your passions grand and views panoramic, then 'Daughter of Fortune' will be irresistible. You'll find it hard not to be beguilded by the charm and ingenuity of Allende's storytelling.'