Diana
clarin

Unlovable. Inadequate. Unworthy. This is how the protagonist of this novel feels. She underwent her first mutilation as soon as she was born and it affected her name, which was shortened from Denise to Denis by the registry clerk. Then it was the turn of the stomach, and too many inches of skin to stitch up. Denis is from Mestre, and like his city-squeezed between aristocratic Venice and working-class Marghera-he is struggling to define his own identity. Although she is a vegan, she works nights at a fish wholesale because she detests people, falsehood, and corporatism. Finds men excessively basic, women hypocritical and intrusive. Among the few people she loves is Anastasia, born Angel, a transgender woman also a citizen of the night, who bases her troubled yet joyful life on her choice not to have surgery. Denis becomes her best friend, but things get complicated when one day Anastasia shows up for a date in the guise of Angel-and something is born between these two amphibious creatures that will have to keep itself balanced on the fine thread of feelings. “The Sirens of the Night” is Diana Chiarin’s debut novel, an unfiltered and yet light novel; writing that captures, with grace and irony, the melancholy sparkle of a fragile love.