Andromeda Romano-Lax's fiction delves into the intricate tapestry of human relationships and historical currents. Before turning to novels, she honed her craft as a journalist and travel writer, experiences that lend a rich, grounded quality to her prose. Her writing is celebrated for its vivid imagery and profound psychological insights. Romano-Lax is also a co-founder of 49 Writers, an organization dedicated to fostering literary arts in Alaska.
When Feliu Delargo is born, late-nineteenth-century Spain is a nation slipping from international power and struggling with its own fractured identity, caught between the chaos of post-empire and impending Civil War.
In 1938, Ernst Vogler, a 26-year-old tasked by the Third Reich's Sonderprojekte, embarks on a mission to retrieve the renowned Classical Roman marble statue, The Discus Thrower, in Rome. What begins as a straightforward three-day assignment quickly unfolds into a complex journey filled with moral dilemmas and the weight of historical significance, as Vogler navigates the dangerous waters of art theft and the looming shadow of the Gestapo.
Praise for Plum Rains ?In this profoundly inquisitive and compelling novel, Romano-Lax sets timeless human dilemmas involving love, racism, misogyny, violence, grief, and dissent against environmental decimation, the daunting ethical questions raised by burgeoning AI, and consideration of the very future of humanity. -Booklist, Starred Review ? ? ?[Romano-Lax's] spin on the genre focuses on an elderly woman and a male android, a dynamic that provides the novel with its most original and engaging material. The thoughtful depictions of old age, memory, and trauma are refreshing. This is a compelling, enjoyable addition to the genre. A well-written, entertaining novel that both enacts and subverts the tropes of android fiction. ?? -Kirkus Reviews This quietly thoughtful read sits at the crossroads of literary and speculative fiction and will attract readers of both genres, especially those interested in exploring the consequences of present-day policies and the boundaries of artificial intelligence and human/robotic relationships. -Library Journal ?Andromeda Romano-Lax's near-future novel, Plum Rains, gracefully explores ethical questions around artificial intelligence with refreshing humanity. Romano-Lax's latest novel is a gift. Through its beauty and devastation, its speculation and its certainty, it will force audiences to confront the truest places within themselves-the spaces where artifice will never suffice. ?? ??-?Foreword Reviews, Starred Review Romano-Lax proves herself a gifted writer, creating beautiful imagery . . . ?a story of human connection and finding joy after trauma. -Publishers Weekly Praise for Andromeda Romano-Lax Impressive and richly atmospheric. -The New York Times Book Review Riveting. -People Magazine With great care and skill, Romano-Lax teases out the human complexities, exploring the differing values, desires and fears of the various characters while creating [an] atmosphere of chilling menace and threat. -Sydney Morning Herald Both shocking and thought-provoking; and the intimate struggles of a woman weighing her value, utility, and satisfaction both within and outside the home certainly resonate today. -The Boston Globe Scorching . . . By detailing how the study of human behavior differs from understanding people, and how smart women can miss the obvious and make mistakes, Romano-Lax sheds a harsh yet deeply moving light on feminism and psychology, in theory and in practice. -Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
In 1920, when she graduated from Vassar College with her degree in psychology, Rosalie Rayner took a coveted position at the Johns Hopkins research lab to assist the charismatic John B. Watson, the man who pioneered behaviorist psychology. Together, John Watson and Rosalie Rayner conducted experiments on hundreds of babies to prove behaviorist principles of nurture over nature. They also embarked on a scandalous affair that cost them both their jobs. The Watsons' bestselling parenting book, Psychological Care of Infant and Child, which emphasized emotional detachment, affected the upbringings of generations of American children but Rosalie, now a mother herself, had to confront its tenets personally. With Behave, Andromeda Romano-Lax offers a fictional biography of Rosalie Rayner Watson, a woman whose lab work is now widely repudiated but who in her time was at the cutting edge of parenting psychology
The story follows Feliu Delargo, whose life takes a turn from the moment he narrowly escapes a mishap at birth that prevents him from being named "Feliz." As he grows, his journey is marked by a rich tapestry of experiences, exploring themes of identity, fate, and the pursuit of happiness. The narrative intertwines his personal struggles with the broader cultural backdrop, offering a poignant reflection on the nature of joy and the complexities of life.
A modern-day historian finds her life intertwined with Annie Oakley's in an electrifying novel that explores female revenge and the allure of changing one's past. Ruth McClintock is obsessed with Annie Oakley. For nearly a decade, she has been studying the legendary sharpshooter, convinced that a scarring childhood event was the impetus for her crusade to arm every woman in America. This search has cost Ruth her doctorate, a book deal, and her fiancé—but finally it has borne fruit. She has managed to hunt down what may be a journal of Oakley’s midlife struggles, including secret visits to a psychoanalyst and the desire for vengeance against the “Wolves,” or those who have wronged her. With the help of Reece, a tech-savvy senior at the local high school, Ruth attempts to establish the journal’s provenance, but she’s begun to have jarring out-of-body episodes parallel to Annie’s own lived experiences. As she solves Annie’s mysteries, Ruth confronts her own truths, including the link between her teenage sister’s suicide and an impending tragedy in her Minnesota town that Ruth can still prevent.
In this atmospheric thriller set at a luxury memoir-writing workshop on the shores of Lake Atitlán, Guatemala, a grieving mother goes undercover to investigate her daughter’s mysterious death. Rose, the mother of twentysomething aspiring writer Jules, has waited three months for answers about her daughter’s death. Why was she swimming alone when she feared the water? Why did she stop texting days before she was last seen? When the official investigation rules the death an accidental drowning, the body possibly lost forever in Central America’s deepest lake, an unsatisfied Rose travels to the memoir workshop herself. She hopes to draw her own conclusion—and find closure. When Rose arrives, she is swept into the curious world created by her daughter’s literary hero, the famous writing teacher Eva Marshall, a charismatic woman known for her candid—and controversial—memoirs. As Rose uncovers details about the days leading up to Jules’s disappearance, she begins to suspect that this glamorous retreat package is hiding ugly truths. Is Lake Atitlán a place where traumatized women come to heal or a place where deeper injury is inflicted? The Deepest Lake is both a sharp look at the sometimes toxic, exclusionary world of high-class writing workshops and an achingly poignant view of a mother’s grief.