Brought by Martha to audition for one of the luxury hotels in the Dominican Republic, Selena casts his/her spell over Hugo Graubel, one of the hotel's rich investors. Graubel is a powerful man in the Republic, married with children but hiding his true sexual nature. Sirena, determined to escape the poverty and abuse s/he suffered as a child, engages Graubel in a long seduction in this mordant, intensely lyrical tragicomedy. Part masque, part cabaret, Mayra Santos-Febres's Sirena Selena is a riveting, sensual novel about our most basic desires and those who exploit and are exploited by them.

"Every once in a while you come across a novel and say to yourself, This is the novel I've always wanted to read, but no one had dared write it until now. Mayra Santos-Febres's sultry and beguiling Sirena Selena is such a novel, a secret, honeyed pleasure you will dream your way through. It's brisk, funny, mordantly theatrical, sexy as hell, and utterly memorable. Its long, steamy seduction will leave you sweating with desire...