Rosa Montero is an acclaimed novelist and an award-winning journalist for the Spanish newspaper El País. A native of Madrid and the daughter of a professional bullfighter, Montero published her first novel at age twenty-eight. She has won Spain’s top book award, the Qué Leer Prize, twice—for The Lunatic of the House in 2003 and Story of the Transparent King in 2005. Rosa was kind enough to answer a few of my questions about herself and her latest novel, Tears In Rain.

KC: Will you tell us a bit about your brand new book, Tears In Rain?

Rosa Montero: It is a science fiction thriller set in Madrid 2109… Actually, it is an existential thriller, so to say, because it talks about the main human tragedy: to come to this beautiful life so filled with desires and projects and dreams, and to die so soon! Because death comes always too soon, even if you manage to be 100 years old!!! Besides this, it is a book about human nature, about memory and identity, about politics and the need of the others. Bruna Husky, the main character, is a former warrior replicant who works as a detective, and I think she is the strongest character I have ever written. And I hope that all these ingredients are wrapped up in a tight and adventurous and gripping and humorous tale, lol!!!
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We’re pleased to bring you a free look at the first chapter of Rosa Montero’s Tears in Rain, a novel set in a post-Blade-Runner world…

Here’s the book description:

Death is inevitable. Especially when you have an expiration date.

As a replicant, or “techno-human,” Detective Bruna Husky knows two things: humans bioengineered her to perform dangerous, undesirable tasks; and she has just ten years on the United States of Earth before her body automatically self-destructs. But with “anti-techno” rage on the rise and a rash of premature deaths striking her fellow replicants, she may have even less time than she originally thought.

Investigating the mysterious deaths, Bruna delves into the fractious, violent history shared by humans and replicants, and struggles to engage the society that fails to understand her—yet created her. The deeper she gets, the deadlier her work becomes as she uncovers a vast, terrifying conspiracy bent on changing the very course of the world. But even as the darkness of her reality closes in, Bruna clings fiercely to life.

Read on for the sneak peek at Tears in Rain by Rosa Montero…

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