num_pages: 304
description: 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. Raised by her ambitious grandmother, the regal and commanding Paulina del Valle, she grows up in a privileged environment, free of the limitations that circumscribe the lives of women at that time, but tormented by terrible nightmares. When she finds herself alone at the end of an unhappy love affair, she decides to explore the mystery of her past, to discover what it was, exactly, all those years ago, that had such a devastating effect on her young life.Richly detailed, epic in scope, this engrossing story of the dark power of hidden secrets is intimate in its probing of human character, and thrilling in the way it illuminates the complexity of family ties.
language: English
title: Portrait in Sepia
titlecomplete: Portrait in Sepia
characters: Lynn Sommers, Severo del Valle, Eliza Sommers, Aurora del Valle, Nivea del Valle, Tao Chi'en, Paulina del Valle
genres: Fiction, Historical, Magical Realism, Latin American, Spanish Literature, Romance, Literature, Latin American Literature, Novels, Historical Fiction
ratings_count: 38270
places: Chile
series: Involuntary trilogy
awards: awardedAt: 978336000000
name: Premio Valle-Inclán
category: Margaret Sayers Peden
publisher: Flamingo