"Allende can spin a yarn with the grace of a poet."-Entertainment Weekly AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, NOW WITH A NEW DEAR READER LETTER From the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea and The House of the Spirits, an enthralling and suspenseful coming-of-age story about a teenage girl who must unravel the mysteries of her past in order to save herself. Nineteen-year-old Maya Vidal grew up in a rambling old house...

"The story of a mulatta woman, a slave and concubine, determined to take control of her own destiny in a society where that would seem impossible"--Provided by publisher.

Colombia's Pacific coast, where everyday life entails warding off the brutal forces of nature. In this constant struggle, nothing is taken for granted. Damaris lives with her fisherman husband in a shack on a bluff overlooking the sea. Childless and at that age 'when women dry up,' as her uncle puts it, she is eager to adopt an orphaned puppy. But this act may bring more than just affection into her home. The Bitch is written in a prose as terse as...

An irresistible, vivid, and wise story of one woman's reckoning with loss and love

Blanca is forty years old and motherless. Shaken by the unexpected death of the most important person in her life, she suddenly realizes that she has no idea what her future will look like.
 
To ease her dizzying grief and confusion, Blanca turns to her dearest friends, her closest family, and a change of scenery. Leaving Barcelona behind,...

"A poignant collage of stories of women young and old, this novel from an Alfaguara Prize-winning author explores passion, bad decisions, and the scars left by relationships over time. Margarita suspects that her husband is having an affair with one of his students. Elizabeth tries to escape a shallow life of privilege in New York City in the fifties. Doris Dana, Gabriela Mistral's lover and executor, enjoys a passionate night of sex and alcohol with...

"Kraken's first girlfriend, Ana Belén Liaño, has been murdered as part of a ritual not seen for 2,600 years. She has been burned, hung, and then placed upside down in a Bronze Age cauldron. But she is not the only one. Pregnant women all over the region are dying at the hands of a psychopath who imitates "the water rituals" in sacred places in the Basque country and Cantabria. There is no time to waste, because Deputy Superintendent Díaz de Salvatierra...

"The Witch is dead. And the discovery of her corpse-by a group of children playing near the irrigation canals-propels the whole village into an investigation of how and why this murder occurred. Rumors and suspicions spread. As the novel unfolds in a dazzling linguistic torrent, with each unreliable narrator lingering details, new acts of depravity or brutality, Melchor extracts some tiny shred of humanity from these characters that most would write...

"Eva Luna is the daughter of a professor's assistant and a snake-bitten gardener--born poor, orphaned at an early age, and working as a servant. Eva is a naturally gifted and imaginative storyteller who meets people from all stations and walks of life. Though she has no wealth, she trades her stories like currency with people who are kind to her. In this novel, she shares the story of her own life and introduces readers to a diverse and eccentric...