Winner of the Casa de Teatro Prize (Dominican Republic), Damiana's Reprieve is a fine novella distinguished by insight and sensitivity. It gives a candid look at a young opera singer--what happens backstage before and during performances, and what happens when unexpected turns in life leave one facing the not-so-cliché reality that the show must go on.

Damiana is the lead in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, and leading up to the opening day's performance a sequence of unexpected events--from a surprise family reunion that forces her to analyze her past, to facing the consequences of the domestic abuse she and her siblings endured, and finding the answer to a very painful question--culminate to leave her world forever altered. Translated from the Spanish.