"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...

Guiliana is the wife of Ugo, a plant manager in Ravenna. Recently released from the hospital after a car accident, Giuliana is in dire straits mentally, but Ugo thinks she's just hysterical. When she meets the charming Corrado, he seems sympathetic, shares her feeling of being lost, but he doesn't fully understand and his amatory advances are not what she needs. Living in the shadow of industry, surrounded by the blighted landscape of the mechanized...