Name: Portrait in Sepia
ISBN: 9780007123018

Isabel Allende

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. When she finds herself alone at the end of an unhappy love affair, she decides to explore the mystery of her past.

Portrait in Sepia

A Novel (P.S.)

Melissa Palmer

Book #71 Read in 2013
Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende

This book is a family saga book. Aurora tells the story of her family--past and present. Her family members are interesting and complex people who have lived interesting lives. Aurora is also trying to figure out some things about her past and hopes by detailing the histories of her family members, things will be clarified for her. This book was a bit slow in parts but Allende's lush writing style and unique characters saved it for me.

http://melissasbookpicks.blogspot.com

Rebecca Grandison 

The sequel to Daughter of Fortune and is equally as good and beautifully written. I love her!

Retrato en sepia

Emir Andrés Ibañez

Este libro continúa con la historia que comenzó en Hija de la fortuna, tomando personajes secundarios y haciéndolos protagonistas, e introduciendo a Aurora del Valle, nieta de Eliza Sommers, quien nos va a contar sobre el hecho traumatico que le hizo olvidar los primeros cinco años de su vida. Creo que se puede leer independientemente, pero recomiendo leer el anterior primero.

Jessica Smith

I have to give this two stars and no more because, ultimately, I don't think it held together very well. Making Aurora Del Valle the narrator, rather than opting for a third-person narration like in 
  Daughter of Fortune
, left Aurora narrating lots of things she wasn't present for and has no realistic way of knowing the details of. It didn't work.

And furthermore, Aurora Del Valle just isn't that interesting. She's surrounded by interesting people, but she doesn't have much going for her herself – only her love of photography which didn't interest me at all. She's no Eliza Sommers.

I liked some things about this book. I liked that we finally got to see Eliza Sommers and Tao Chi'en consummate their love, although it would have been nice to see at the end of the last book. I got invested in hating Matías Del Valle (Aurora's biological father), was pleased to see him meet his doom, and I liked Severo and Nivea. I don't remember 
  The House of the Spirits
 very well, so it took a long time before I remembered what role they played in that book, but I was almost tempted to put it on the "to reread" list to see what happened to them. Maybe one day.

I have to say that this book was better as a sequel to Daughter of Fortune than as a prequel to House of the Spirits. The latter draws on the magical realism tradition, unlike the other two, which are straight historical fiction. This leaves Aurora, in this book, having to say things like, "and then the strangest thing happened, wouldn't you believe it, and this child had green skin! if only I'd had my camera…" It stood out and bothered me, I guess.

I did read this in Spanish, but I was too lazy to review it in that language (mostly I got stuck on how to translate "held together" from the first sentence of this review, so I gave up). The Spanish wasn't too tricky, although as always, it slowed down my reading. Overall, you might as well read it if you finished Daughter of Fortune and feel cheated by the ending, but otherwise it's not that great.