Out of Valparaíso, away from stuffy English relatives caught in the grip of suffocating customs amid the bustling Chilean city, a young girl sets out in search of an elusive, ghostly lover to the north, to California, engulfed in the gold rush. An aimless Chinese doctor— a sorrowful widower who has lost his love and with it his way—wanders the seas. One day, these two will meet and help each other—and not only each other—to grow wings and rediscover meaning in their own lives amidst the chaotic boiling of History, from which, with blood, pain, and dizzying delight, American and Chilean modernity emerges along with all that we know about personal freedom. Isabel Allende is a superstar of Latin American literature alongside Gabriel García Márquez, one of the most famous women in South America, a recipient of numerous awards; her books have been translated into dozens of languages, and total sales are steadily approaching one hundred million copies. Allende's instantly bestselling novel "Daughter of Fortune," a prequel to her first, resoundingly successful novel "The House of Spirits," is a saga about crossing and overcoming borders: geographical, mental, racial, class, and any other kind. Here, a person gradually attains freedom—initially frightening, then as necessary as air—and becomes themselves. For the first time in Russian!
