The moving novel from the multi-million-bestselling author of The House of the Spirits and The Japanese Lover

Irene Beltrán is a force to be reckoned with. As a magazine journalist – an unusual profession for a woman with her privileged upbringing – she is constantly challenging the oppressive regime. Her investigative partner is photographer Francisco Leal, the son of impoverished Spanish Marxist émigrés.

They are an inseparable team, and – despite Irene’s engagement to an army captain – form a passionate connection. When an assignment leads them to uncover an unspeakable crime, they are determined to reveal the truth in a national overrun by terror and violence. Together they will risk everything for justice – and ultimately to embrace the passion that binds them.

‘[Allende] can just as deftly depict loving tenderness as convey the high fire of eroticism. And when you’ve successfully mingled sex and politics with a noble cause, how can you go wrong? New York Times Book Review

‘Allende is a born storyteller’ Chicago Tribune

‘The people in Of Love and Shadows are real, their triumphs and defeats are so faithful to the truth of human existence, that we see the world in miniature. This is precisely what fiction should do’ Washington Post

‘We are by turns enchanted and entertained . . . Allende has married the world of magic and political evil most credibly’ LA Times Book Review