' My name is Eva which means life according to a book of names my mother consulted I was born in the back room of a shadowy house & grew up amidst ancient furniture books in Latin & human mummies but none of those things made me melancholy because I came into the world with a breath of the jungle in my memory' Isabel Allende tells the sweet & sinister story of an orphan who beguiles the world with her astonishing visions triumphing over the worst of adversity & bringing light to a dark place