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In a tour-de-force tapestry of science fiction and historical fiction, Andromeda Romano-Lax presents a story set in Japan and Taiwan that spans a century of empire, conquest, progress, and destruction. 2029: In Japan, a historically mono-cultural nation, childbirth rates are at an all-time low and the elderly are living increasingly longer lives. This population crisis has precipitated the mass immigration of foreign medical workers from all over Asia, as well as the development of finely tuned artificial intelligence to step in where humans fall short. In Tokyo, Angelica Navarro, a Filipina nurse who has been in Japan for the last five years, works as caretaker for Sayoko Itou, a moody, secretive woman about to turn 100 years old. One day, Sayoko receives a present: a cutting-edge robot "friend" that will teach itself to anticipate Sayoko's every need. Angelica wonders if she is about to be forced out of her much-needed job by an inanimate object - one with a preternatural ability to uncover the most deeply buried secrets of the humans around it. Meanwhile, Sayoko becomes attached to the machine. The old woman has been hiding secrets of her own for almost a century - and she's too old to want to keep them anymore. What she reveals is a hundred-year saga of forbidden love, hidden identities, and the horrific legacy of WWII and Japanese colonialism - a confession that will tear apart her own life and Angelica's. Is the helper robot the worst thing that could have happened to the two women - or is it forcing the changes they both desperately needed?



About the Author

Andromeda Romano-Lax

Andromeda Romano-Lax worked as a freelance journalist and travel writer before turning to fiction. Her first novel, The Spanish Bow, was translated into eleven languages and was chosen as a New York Times Editors' Choice, BookSense pick, and one of Library Journal's Best Books of the Year. Her next novels, The Detour (2012) , Behave (2016) and Plum Rains (2018) have covered subjects from classical art, to the early years of psychology, to artificial intelligence, aging and relationships in the near future. Among her nonfiction works are a dozen travel and natural history guidebooks to the public lands of Alaska, as well as a travel narrative, Searching for Steinbeck's Sea of Cortez: A Makeshift Expedition Along Baja's Desert Coast, which was an Aububon Editor's Choice. Andromeda lives on a small island in British Columbia, having moved to Canada after living for two decades in Anchorage, Alaska, where she co-founded a nonprofit organization, the 49 Alaska Writing Center. She has also lived abroad in Taiwan and Mexico. Andromeda's website is www.romanolax.com and she enjoys hearing from readers.



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