Maria Sirena tells stories. She does it for moneyshe was a favorite in the cigar factory where she worked as a lettoraand for love, spinning gossamer tales out of her own past for the benefit of friends and family. But now, like a modern-day Scheherazade, she will be asked to tell a story so that eight women can keep both hope and themselves alive. Cuba, 1963. Hurricane Flora, one of the deadliest hurricanes in recorded history, is bearing down on the island. Seven women have been evacuated from their homes and herded into the former governors mansion, where they are watched over by another woman, a young soldier of Castros new Cuba named Ofelia. Outside the storm is raging and the floodwaters are rising. In a single room on the top floor of the governors mansion, Maria Sirena begins to tell the incredible story of her childhood during Cubas Third War of Independence; of her father Augustin, a ferocious rebel; of her mother, Lulu, an astonishing woman who fought, loved, dreamed, and suffered as fiercely as her husband.

Stories, however, have a way of taking on a life of their own, and, swept up by her storys momentum, Maria Sirena will reveal more about herself than she or anyone ever expected. Chantel Acevedos The Distant Marvels has the epic scope of a contemporary Gone with the Wind and a faith in the power of storytelling equal to Martels Life of Pi. It is a family saga, a love story, a stunning historical account of the struggle against oppressors, and a long tender plea for forgiveness. The Distant Marvels is, finally, a life-affirming novel about love that lasts a lifetime and the very art of storytelling itself.