When a Robot Decides to Die and Other Stories - by Francisco García González (Paperback)

About the Book

Short stories from a Cuban master of speculative fiction, in English for the first time

Book Synopsis

A manufactured and pre-programmed serial killer; a suicidal robot; a romantic necrophiliac; and an archaeologist who feeds the perverse desires of aficionados of the apocalypse--Francisco García Gonzalez's stories map out literary and metafictional approaches to the sci-fi universe in ways that echo the humor and violence of Miguel de Cervantes, María de Zayas, Jorge Luis Borges, Rosa Montero, and Roberto Bolaño.

With a scholarly introduction by translator Bradley J. Nelson that introduces García González's oeuvre to contemporary readers and scholars of Spanish-language literature, this science fiction collection introduces Anglophones to this unique author.

García González turns a black mirror on contemporary society and its relation both to history and to the future. His insightfulness and relevance draw comparisons with Margaret Atwood, Neal Stephenson, and China Miéville, though his verbal economy and elegance are more akin to Cormac McCarthy, producing both disturbingly uncanny violence and unexpected comedy.

Review Quotes

"Francisco García González is the tenant of his words but the owner of his silences. That seems easy, but it is very hard."
--Lattin Magazine

"In a world of writers and readers addicted to fireworks, Francisco García González shows, once again, that it is possible to illuminate skies without explosions."
--Hispanophone

About the Author

Francisco García González is a writer, editor, and screenwriter. He was born in Havana in 1963. He won Cuba's Hemingway Short Story Prize in 1999.

Bradley J. Nelson is a professor of Spanish at Concordia University.