&;Powerfully evocative. . . . Allende is at her best here; spinning words like spells, enthralling the reader with surreal visions of the New World.&;&; Newsweek A passionate epic of love, freedom, and conquest, based on historical events, from the New York Times bestselling author of The House of the Spirits and A Long Petal of the Sea. Though she was born into poverty, Inés Suárez, a seamstress in sixteenth-century Spain, embodies the same restless hope and opportunism that fuels her nation&;s conquest of the Americas. Learning that her shiftless husband has vanished, Inés uses his disappearance to embark on her own adventure. It is a journey will lead her to Pedro de Valdivia&;a conquistador who becomes the first royal governor of Chile&;and to a love that not only changes her life but the course of history.