Our Lady of the Night

From internationally-acclaimed novelist Mayra Santos-Febres comes a carnal, epic novel about the life of Isabel "La Negra" Luberza--a legendary Puerto Rican madam who, by the end of World War II, became the most powerful woman on the island.

Born into poverty and then abandoned by her mother, Isabel "La Negra" Luberza blossoms into a supremely sensual young woman. Obsessed with attaining aristocratic status--armed with incredible physical presence, indomitable ambition, and keen intelligence--she meets Fernando Fornarís, the man who will forever change her life. With a parcel of land given to her by her rich, white married lover, Isabel transforms herself into a hard-edged and merciless businesswoman--abandoning her own newborn son to become Puerto Rico's most feared and respected madam, a collector of society's secrets, a queen of the notorious brothel that emerges as the island's true political and economic heart.

Set against the rich backdrop of the Caribbean and the United States during the tumultuous years of World War II, Mayra Santos-Febres's Our Lady of the Night is a breathtaking novel of passion, power, and the devastating price of achieving everything one wishes for.

Mayra Santos-Febres has won many prizes for her stories and was recently awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and long-listed for the prestigious IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. She lives in Puerto Rico.

Mayra Santos-Febres es poeta, narradora y critica. Sus novelas incluyen Sirena Selena vestida de pena, finalista del Premio Rómulo Gallegos 2001, y Cualquier miércoles soy tuya. Nuestra Señora de la Noche, finalista del X Premio Primavera, es su tercera novela. Actualmente es catedrática y dirige el taller de narrativa de la Universidad de Puerto Rico.