The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman (King Penguin)

More about the book

The novel is from the perspective of Desiderio, a bureau member in the main city currently under attack by Dr Hoffman’s desire machines. With them, Hoffman expands the dimensions of time-space, allowing mutating mirages to inhabit the same dimension as the living. Desiderio, though indifferent to the apparitions, finds himself visited nightly by a glass woman, the manifestation of Albertina, Hoffman’s daughter & Desiderio’s lover-to-be. Unlike Desiderio, many people go crazy in response to the apparitions. The city, severed from communication with the world, becomes a place of rampant insanity & crime, causing a state of emergency. Under the Minister of Determination's command, Desiderio goes undercover to assassinate Hoffman.