Keynote
A hallucinatory thriller about a failing demon’s search for a new host in post-dictatorship Santo Domingo
Book Title
Asmodeus
Subtitle
A Novel
Cover Image
“Rita Indiana consistently creates new sounds and meanings to get the party started. Her writing is elegant, melodic and wiry. Now imagine that channeling an ecosystem of demons in the Caribbean.”—Yuri Herrera
Body
Asmodeus, a millennia-old demon, has inhabited Rudy, a once-legendary Dominican rock star, for decades. But in 1992, the demon’s powers begin to fade. What follows is a desperate weeklong odyssey as Asmodeus ricochets through the bodies of the inhabitants of Santo Domingo’s underworld: from Guinea, a young metalhead plotting a warehouse heist, to Mireya, the daughter of a former torturer, to other souls caught in his chaotic orbit. Each possession reveals another layer of a city still reeling from the Balaguer dictatorship. And each new host engenders a surprising tenderness in the demon.
From acclaimed musical artist and author Rita Indiana, Asmodeus is written in urgent prose punctuated by original décimas, ten-line rhyming poems drawing from Latin American musical and oral tradition. Indiana weaves together Dominican heavy metal, black magic, and political trauma. Asmodeus is a supernatural noir, riotous thriller, and searing portrait of a nation grappling with its complicated past.
List Price
$18.00
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About the Author
Credit: Christopher Gregory-Rivera
Praise
“Rita Indiana is some kind of genius. Asmodeus is an incantation, an intoxicating and poetic novel about heavy metal, demonic possession, and love. This book is as funny as it is devastating.”—Luis Jaramillo
