Local Heavens

A speculative romance reimagining of The Great Gatsby set in 2075 New York, in which Filipino American Nick Carraway has just moved to the heart of the fractured New Americas, where he meets alluring billionaire Jay Gatsby and becomes entangled in the dark affairs of the city's glamorous elite while investigating the secret of Gatsby's identity.

A corporate hacker. An elusive billionaire. A society trying to survive the American Nightmare.

New York City, 2075. Filipino-American Nick Carraway has just moved to the heart of the fractured New Americas, where he's struck by the city's contradictions - shining corporate towers casting bleak shadows over the slums of a crumbling middle class.

When Nick meets alluring new-money Jay Gatsby, he falls for Gatsby's frank charm and confident aura. But in a city where the wealthy flaunt tech-enhanced bodies to cheat death, surfaces aren't all they seem - and as a corporate-sanctioned cyberspace hacker, Nick knows that no secret can stay buried forever. He's the reason they don't. And his latest assignment? Investigate Gatsby himself.

As Nick becomes entangled in the dark affairs of the elite - and the devastating fallout of their actions on the city's most vulnerable - he must reckon with the limits of compassion and accountability across class and status. What takes precedence: Love, or truth? Heart, or soul?

About the Author

K.M. Fajardo is a second-generation Filipino Canadian writer from the Toronto suburbs. She graduated from the University of Waterloo with a degree in Global Business and Digital Arts before working in the tech industry. After a childhood spent roaming bookstores, she now lives and writes in Toronto with her rescue cat, Clementine. Local Heavens is her debut novel.