Dancing with Butterflies

andlt;iandgt;Dancing with Butterfliesandlt;/iandgt; uses the alternating voices of four very different women whose lives interconnect through a common passion for their Mexican heritage and a dance company called Alegrand#237;a. Yesenia, who founded Alegrand#237;a with her husband, Eduardo, sabotages her own efforts to remain a vital, vibrant woman when she travels back and forth across the Mexican border for cheap plastic surgery. Elena, grief stricken by the death of her only child and the end of her marriage, finds herself falling dangerously in love with one of her underage students. Elena's sister, Adriana, wears the wounds of abandonment by a dys-functional family and becomes unable to discern love from abuse. Soledad, the sweet-tempered illegal immigrant who designs costumes for Alegrand#237;a, finds herself stuck back in Mexico, where she returns to see her dying grandmother. andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt; Reyna Grande has brought these fictional characters so convincingly to life that readers will imagine they know them.

"Award-winning novelist Reyna Grande returns with a novel full of music, motion, and heart. andlt;iandgt;Dancing with Butterfliesandlt;/iandgt; is about four women whose stories and friendships are as rich as the Folkland#243;rico dance that brought them together. Grande is a novelist to watch." -- Tananarive Due, American Book Award-winning author of andlt;iandgt;Blood Colonyandlt;/iandgt;

"Just when you think you know all about friends, Grande comes along to teach you something else about love and its mysteries, about good conversation over beers, sacrifices one makes for family, and about the joys and sins of shoe-stomping pride." -- Helena Marand#237;a Viramontes, author of andlt;iandgt;Their Dogs Came with Themandlt;/iandgt;

Reyna Grande, nacio en Guerrero, Mexico, en 1975, a los nueve anos vino a los Estados Unidos siguiendo a sus padres. En 1999, se graduo de la Universidad de California en Santa Cruz y, en 2003, recibio la beca Rosenthal a Voces Emergentes que otorga el PEN Center USA. Vive en Los Angeles con su hijo. Visite su pagina en la Internet: www.reynagrande.com.

In Dancing with Butterflies, Reyna Grande renders the Mexican immigrant experience in "lyrical and sensual" (Publishers Weekly, starred review) prose through the poignant stories of four women brought together through folklorico dance.

Dancing with Butterflies uses the alternating voices of four very different women whose lives interconnect through a common passion for their Mexican heritage and a dance company called Alegr a. Yesenia, who founded Alegr a with her husband, Eduardo, sabotages her own efforts to remain a vital, vibrant woman when she travels back and forth across the Mexican border for cheap plastic surgery. Elena, grief-stricken by the death of her only child and the end of her marriage, finds herself falling dangerously in love with one of her underage students. Elena's sister, Adriana, wears the wounds of abandonment by a dysfunctional family and becomes unable to discern love from abuse. Soledad, the sweet-tempered illegal immigrant who designs costumes for Alegr a, finds herself stuck back in Mexico, where she returns to see her dying grandmother.

Reyna Grande has brought these fictional characters so convincingly to life that readers will imagine they know them.

From the American Book Award-winning author "Across a Hundred Mountains" comes this new novel that follows a friendship among four women in Los Angeles, who are bound together by their Mexican roots and their love of Folklorico dance.

Reyna Grande is an author, speaker, educator, and event coordinator. Her first novel, Across a Hundred Mountains (Atria, 2006), received a 2010 Latino Books Into Movies Award, a 2007 American Book Award, and the 2006 El Premio Aztlan Literary Award. It was chosen by Eastern Connecticut as its 2007 “One Book/One Region” selection and in 2010 the city of Watsonville, CA selected it for its “On the Same Page” community reads program. Her second novel, Dancing with Butterflies (Washington Square Press, 2009) was critically acclaimed and was the recipient of a 2010 International Latino Book Awards.