New York Times best-selling author Ben H.Winters’ newest novel Android Karenina, the fourth installment of Quirk Classics’ “Mashup” series, tackles a classic with the same admirable gusto demonstrated in his previous Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. Android Karenina is, you guess guessed it, a spiced-up version of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, complete with robots, cyborgs, and even space travel. As in the original novel written by literary legend Leo Tolstoy, Android focuses on two relationships: the tragic romance of Anna Karenina and Count Alexei Vronsky, and the happier marriage of Nikolai Levin and Kitty Shcherbatskaya. However, when a rebellious group of scientific revolutionaries launches an attack on Russian high society’s high-tech lifestyle, the two couples must unite and defend themselves with all the gadgets and cyborgs they can get their hands on. According to The Library Journal, “Winters…does a spectacular job, adding robots and mechanical terrorism to the misery, adultery, and philosophical introspection of Tolstoy’s masterpiece.” Like its predecessor, Android Karenina is sure to be a “monsterpiece.”

Winters’ Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters has already defied the sensible with its quirky spin on Austen’s classic. Named the “Number Three Book of 2009″ by Fandomania, Winters’ unique incorporation of “nefarious pirates, primitive submarines, and rampaging giant mutant lobsters” amongst the themes of love, heartache, and social distinction make for an whimsical and wildly entertaining novel. Sea Monsters has garnered high praise from numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, The Guardian UK, and The New York Times.

In addition to “the classics” Ben has also written The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman, a “fresh and funny” tween novel featuring seventh grade sleuth Bethesda Fielding, who sets her sets on uncovering the secret life of her mousy music teacher, Ms. Finkleman. What she discovers, however, is sure to rock everyone’s world. The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman is set to be published in September 2010, and its sequel, The Ms. Finkleman Conundrum, will be published in Fall 2011.

Ben has written for theatre, including the children’s musicals The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, Uncle Pirate, and A (Tooth) Fairy Tale.

www.benhwinters.com

by Lauren Kuhl