"Easily one of my favorite books of the year. Creative, incisive, and elegantly crafted, this one will wow you even as it wrecks you-you'll be holding your breath to the end." -Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six
A bold sci-fi retelling of The Great Gatsby set in the fractured New Americas of 2075, where a futuristic thriller unravels against a backdrop of stark class divides, tangled desires, and the haunting price of the American Nightmare.
A corporate hacker. An elusive billionaire. A society trying to survive the American Nightmare.
New York City, 2075. Filipino American Nick Carraway has just moved to the heart of the fractured New Americas, where he's struck by the city's contradictions-shining corporate towers casting bleak shadows over the slums of a crumbling middle class.
When Nick meets alluring, new-money Jay Gatsby, he falls for Gatsby's frank charm and confident aura. But in a city where the wealthy flaunt tech-enhanced bodies to cheat death, surfaces aren't all they seem-and as a corporate-sanctioned cyberspace hacker, Nick knows that no secret can stay buried forever. He's the reason they don't. And his latest assignment? Investigate Gatsby himself.
As Nick becomes entangled in the dark affairs of the elite-and the devastating fallout of their actions on the city's most vulnerable-he must reckon with the limits of compassion and accountability across class and status. What takes precedence: Love or truth? Heart or soul?
A brilliant reimagining of Fitzgerald's classic tale of glamour, desire, and desperation, Local Heavens examines the guardrails of morality…and the price of desire. K. M. Fajardo is a second-generation Filipino Canadian writer from the Toronto suburbs. She graduated from the University of Waterloo with a degree in Global Business and Digital Arts before working in the tech industry. After a childhood spent roaming bookstores, she now lives and writes in Toronto with her rescue cat, Clementine. Local Heavens is her debut novel. "Pun Bandhu narrates most of this unique cyberpunk reimagining of "The Great Gatsby." The year is 2075, and Nick Carraway is an expert cyberspace diver. His new contract brings him to New York, where he meets up with his cousin, Daisy; her abrasive husband, Tom; and Daisy's friend, Jordan. Nick poses as Jay Gatsby's newest Gen Wealth employee so he can investigate the mysterious man behind the company. Mieko Gavia voices short segments relating to Gen Wealth's business, showing an impressive balance between saccharine sales pitches and desperate people who are struggling to make ends meet. Bandhu's excellent pacing enhances tense scenes as Nick delves into Gatsby's past. Most impressively, Bandhu switches smoothly between Nick's caution and Gatsby's charm."
