Dancing with Butterflies

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 Alegra.

Yesenia, who founded Alegra 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 Alegra, 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.

About the Author

Reyna Grande came to the United States at age nine to join her father, who had left her behind in Mexico for several years. She went on to become the first person in her family to obtain a higher education. She holds a B.A. and an M.F.A. in creative writing. Her first novel, Across a Hundred Mountains, received the El Premio Aztlan Literary Award in 2006 and an American Book Award in 2007. Her novel has been required reading at various high schools and colleges across the nation. She is currently at work on a memoir.