Asmodeus

by Rita Indiana

A hallucinatory thriller about a failing demon’s search for a new host in post-dictatorship Santo Domingo

Asmodeus, a millennia-old demon, has inhabited Rudy, a once-legendary Dominican rock star, for decades. But in 1992, the demon’s powers begin to fade. What follows is a desperate weeklong odyssey as Asmodeus ricochets through the bodies of the inhabitants of Santo Domingo’s underworld: from Guinea, a young metalhead plotting a warehouse heist, to Mireya, the daughter of a former torturer, to other souls caught in his chaotic orbit. Each possession reveals another layer of a city still reeling from the Balaguer dictatorship. And each new host engenders a surprising tenderness in the demon.

From acclaimed musical artist and author Rita Indiana, Asmodeus is written in urgent prose punctuated by original décimas, ten-line rhyming poems drawing from Latin American musical and oral tradition. Indiana weaves together Dominican heavy metal, black magic, and political trauma. Asmodeus is a supernatural noir, riotous thriller, and searing portrait of a nation grappling with its complicated past.

208 pages, Paperback

Expected publication September 1, 2026

About the author

Rita Indiana (Santo Domingo, 1977) es escritora, compositora y Global Distinguished Professor en la maestría de escritura creativa en español de la New York University. Es autora de La mucama de Omicunlé (Periférica, 2015), finalista en la Bienal de Novela Mario Vargas Llosa de 2016 y Gran Premio de la Asociación de Escritores del Caribe, primera novela en español en obtenerlo. Tiene publicadas La estrategia de Chochueca (Isla Negra, 2003), Papi (Periférica, 2011), Nombres y animales (Periférica, 2013) y Hecho en Saturno (Periférica, 2018) y los discos El juidero y Mandinga Times, este último nominado a los Premios Grammy Latinos. Ha colaborado con El País, The Boston Globe, Granta y Vice, y sus novelas se han traducido a diez idiomas.