Our Lady of the Night: A Novel
3.5/5
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About this ebook
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
Mayra Santos-Febres is Associate Professor of Literature at the University of Puerto Rico. She has published two books of poetry, and her short stories have won many prizes, including the 1994 Letras de Oro Prize from the University of Miami and the 1997 Juan Rulfo Prize, awarded by Radio Sarandi in Paris. In 1997 her two collections of short fiction were translated into English under the title Urban Oracles.
Read more from Mayra Santos Febres
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Reviews for Our Lady of the Night
7 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mayra Santos-Febres is a master storyteller. The setting is Puerto Rico during WWII, and follows the rise of a real life madam, Isabel la Negra. But the story is not told in linear order. And interspersed between chapters filled with narrative plot are feverish prayers said by isolated or sidelined characters in the story. One is left with the feeling that the reader doesn't know the whole story. There is much attention to detail throughout the book making me think Santos-Febres did her research regarding the time period. She consistently names the streets her characters take throughout the book, allowing readers familiar with the locations to place themselves in Ponce, Puerto Rico.