Andújar - by Cardona (Paperback)

About the Book

This steampunk science fiction novel is a darkly alluring period romance with elements of magical realism featuring a fierce socialite and and a mysterious, mechanically ambivalent hero.

Book Synopsis

Think you can't fall in love with a Robot? Santos, a young aristocrat living in the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico, was the sole survivor of an unknown illness that killed his entire family when he was twelve years old and left him endowed with multiple prosthetics and mechanical parts in order to survive. Masked, eccentric and reclusive, Santos is raised in almost total isolation by his kind aunt Ofelia, inside a mysteriously peculiar oceanfront mansion. Already resigned to his fate of loneliness, Santos' darkly whimsical world is besieged by a visit from a beautiful, hedonistic and soon-to-be married socialite cousin Violeta Andújar, during the socially and politically convulsive eve of the Spanish-American War. Far more interested in parties, social intrigue and secret lovers, Violeta is at first dismissive of her "invalid" and eternally-masked relative. When a series of odd and disturbing incidents reveal that enigmatic Santos' ailment blurs the lines of the purely physical and ventures into the dark waters of the paranormal and even the futuristic, Violeta Andújar finds herself in the throes of a darkly bizarre and inescapable seduction by a man who may not be a man at all.

Review Quotes

"Like the titular Robot Gentleman himself, this wonderfully dark novel is assembled together intricately and with originality to give life to something both, beautiful and monstrous. Sometimes Latin American magical realism epic, sometimes alternate history, and always Steampunk, Carolina Cardona gifts us a devastating story with lots of heart and whimsy, bringing to mind the early films of Tim Burton."

Angel Isián