My Name Is Emilia del Valle

My Name is Emilia del Valle was published in 2025 and is Isabel Allende’s 23rd novel. The novel traces Emilia’s travels as an American journalist in Chile during the Chilean Civil War in 1891. Allende’s work is often centered around strong, independent female characters and elements of magical realism, both of which appear in My Name is Emilia del Valle. In the novel, Allende explores themes including The Effects of War Across Social and Economic Classes, The Trials of Womanhood and Work in the 19th Century, and Self-Discovery Through Travel and Storytelling.

This guide refers to the 2025 edition published by Ballantine Books.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide feature depictions of sexual content, antigay bias, death by suicide, graphic violence, physical abuse, and death. The source text also uses outdated language to refer to people with multiracial heritage, used in this guide only in direct quotes.

Plot Summary

Emilia del Valle is born in 1866, and on her seventh birthday, her mother, Molly, pays to have Emilia’s portrait taken. She sends it to Emilia’s biological father, Gonzalo Andrés del Valle. Molly and Gonzalo slept together when she was younger, but Gonzalo refused to acknowledge Emilia as his daughter. Molly, who had been training to be a nun, instead marries Francisco Claro, who becomes Emilia’s adoring stepfather. They live in the Mission District of San Francisco.

When Emilia is 17, she begins writing dime novels under the pseudonym Brandon J. Price. They gain popularity, and at age 22, she interviews for a job with a newspaper, The Daily Examiner. While the newspaper is at first reticent to hire a woman, Emilia passes her writing trial and gets the job, though she still publishes under her pseudonym. She also works closely with another reporter named Eric Whelan and travels to New York to write human interest stories for her West Coast audience. There, she meets and falls in love with Eric’s brother Owen. The two have an affair, and when Emilia returns and learns from Eric that Owen is married, she is heartbroken.

When Emilia is 25, her editor assigns her and Eric to cover the Chilean Civil War. Eric will cover the war itself while Emilia will write stories of individual Chileans. Emilia also gets her editor to agree to let her publish under her own name. Before she departs for Chile, her mother gives her a letter to give to her biological father if she finds him.

Emilia arrives in Iquique, Chile, in June of 1891. Rebels control the town, and Emilia learns that her surname places her in the upper class of Chileans. She interviews several workers’ wives and realizes that the war affects the working class more than it does the wealthy elite who control both sides of the civil war. Emilia travels further south to Valparaíso to learn more about the government’s side of the war while Eric goes north to follow the rebels.

In Santiago, Emilia meets Rodolfo León, a fellow journalist who supports the government. However, he is also aware of the greed of people who own the nitrate mines. He arranges an interview with the president, José Manuel Balmaceda, for Emilia. When they talk, Balmaceda describes how he is trying to restore order, but Emilia points out the violence he uses to enforce it. Balmaceda also asserts that he does try to advocate for workers.

Emilia also encounters Paulina del Valle, her great-aunt, who does not seem to care about Emilia but puts her in touch with her father. When Emilia and Gonzalo meet, she discovers that he is ill. He regrets his actions toward her mother and still has the photograph of Emilia that Molly sent him. Emilia forgives him and tries to give him some peace. She also burns her mother’s letter, and eventually, Gonzalo legally claims her as his daughter.

Emilia goes to Valparaíso and interviews the general of the government’s army. She then travels to a government military encampment where she meets canteen girls, who provide water and first aid to soldiers during battle. She stays with the canteen girls and helps them, even wearing their uniform to blend in. She also learns that many join the military not because they believe in the cause but because they need the money and food it provides.

When the Battle of Concón begins, Emilia is still with the canteen girls and is struck by the horrors of war. She assists the canteen girls until it is clear that the rebels have won the battle. She and one of the girls flee together, along with a stray dog from the military encampment. While she returns safely to Valparaíso, she feels changed by what she has experienced. She no longer wants to entertain her readers, realizing that war and the people who fight are much more serious than that.

Emilia and Eric reunite, and they kiss after years of built-up romantic tension. He recounts his time with the rebels, and they spend several days together. He goes to the frontlines with the rebels during the Battle of Placilla while Emilia assists in a hospital.

When the rebels win, chaos immediately ensues as their side takes priority in the hospital. Government supporters begin to be arrested or killed, including Emilia. Eric survives the battle but is dazed by a concussion after being near a grenade. When he goes to find Emilia the next day, he learns that she was arrested.

Emilia awakens in prison. She goes before a war council that tries her for her sympathy with the government’s army, finding her guilty despite her pleas. She prays that night, and Our Lady of Guadalupe appears to her. The next morning, she comes before the firing squad. As a cruel joke, they fire blanks at her. She is eventually released after Eric finds a sympathetic rebel leader to lobby on Emilia’s behalf. Her standing as a del Valle helps.

Injured and ill, Emilia recovers at the del Valle residence. She and Paulina grow closer, and Paulina reveals that Emilia inherited a tract of land in an undeveloped part of the country. Eric and Emilia discuss getting married, and Paulina throws them a ring ceremony in which they become formally engaged. Their editor wants them to come home, but Emilia wants to travel to her inherited property by herself. Reluctantly, Eric returns to San Francisco, and Emilia departs on her journey.

She first takes a boat with a kind captain who offers to accompany her into the land of an Indigenous tribe, the Mapuche. When he can go no farther, Emilia continues on her own, feeling like she has found her roots.

In the Epilogue, told from Eric’s perspective, the boat captain writes to him when Emilia does not return before Christmas as she promised. The captain has heard that Emilia is ill, and Eric departs immediately for Chile. Together, the two men trace her path. Eric ultimately finds Emilia recovered in the mountains of Chile, ready to go home.