Madame Askew and The Grand Arbiter

Our first book club read of 2023 is the engrossing, “Andújar: The Robot Gentleman of San Juan” by Carolina Cardona. Full of gripping adventure, poignancy, and fantastical science, this novel is certain to be a page turner!

A happy reminder that you do not have to finish the book to attend book club but there may be spoilers

Madame Askew hosts book club on zoom and the link will be posted the day of the event. Whenever possible, book club also streams directly to our Facebook page.

Goodreads Blurb:

It is said that Santos Andújar is more automaton than man. The mysterious aristocrat living in the city of San Juan barely survived the unknown illness that killed his entire family and left him with multiple prosthetics to lead a reclusive existence inside his ancestral oceanfront home. Yet Santos’ darkly whimsical world is soon besieged by a visit from his beautiful and hedonistic cousin, Violeta Andújar. Far more interested in social intrigue and secret lovers than in the looming Spanish American War that threatens their world, Violeta is at first dismissive of her “invalid” and eternally masked relative until a series of odd and disturbing incidents reveal that enigmatic Santos’ ailment ventures into the paranormal and the oddly futuristic. Suddenly Violeta Andújar finds herself in the throes of political turmoil and a darkly bizarre seduction by a man… who may not be a man at all.