topics: |  fiction | chile | latin-america | spanish

Hailing from an aristocrat Chilean family (her father is Salvador Allende's
cousin), Isabel Allende has lived an expatriate life since 1973, when Allende
was ousted and killed in a coup.  Eventually migrated to California, she has
established herself as a storyteller often relating the lives and loves of
characters from high Chilean society such as the del Valle's in Portrait in
Sepia.  Aurora del Valle's life is the focus of the narrative; her matriarch
grandmother and the family story forms the early part of the story, with
their move back to Chile in the second part.  Her coming of age and becoming
a photographer against the backdrop of various untenable relationships
constitutes the last part.

Plot summary (wikip)

It is the second part in the stories of the Sommers family. Continuing with the
granddaughter of Eliza Sommers (Hija de la fortuna), the protagonist is Aurora
del Valle. The bastardized daughter of Lynn Sommers (the daughter of Eliza and
Tao Chi'en) and Matias Rodriguez de Santa Cruz(son of Paulina del Valle and
Feliciano Rodriguez de Santa Cruz) has no memory of her first 5 years of
life. She has reoccurring nightmares of men in black pyjamas looming around
her, and losing the grip on the hand of someone beloved.

Her mother died while bearing Aurora (Chinese name Lai Ming) in Chinatown,
San Francisco. Her biological father never acknowledged he had made a
bastard child until the end of his life, as he died a slow and agonizing
death of syphillis. After the death of Lynn, Aurora's maternal grandparents
raise her until the death of Tao Chi'en. After such events, Eliza
approaches Paulina to raise Aurora while Eliza goes to China to bury Tao's
body. Paulina makes Eliza agree to cut all contact with Aurora so that she
will not get too attached to the girl and have her taken away later on in
life.

The novel is divided into 3 parts and an epilogue. The first part describes
Aurora's family members, and the second is where Aurora's life comes more into
play. Paulina moves her family (Aurora, her butler Frederick Williams that
marries her after Feliciano dies, and the various servants) down to Chile where
the rest of her family lives. The third part is where Aurora grows up the most,
becoming a photographer, marrying Diego Dominguez and eventually leaving
him. She takes a lover, Dr. Ivan Radovic, and their relationship is explained
more fully in the epilogue.