Lucia Perrucci

Cassandra Apollinaire’s Prodigious Soul-Capturing Machine

Adventure
Fantasy
Mystery

Three siblings, a race against time among the streets of Paris, coded messages, ancient daguerreotypes, centuries-old secret circles and a disturbing mystery: can photographic film preserve a soul?

France, 1971. When a mysterious package arrives for Louis — the fourth Sélavy sibling, who disappeared two years earlier — the family is thrown into chaos.Three siblings uncover the missing part of an eerie darkroom machine, triggering a haunting adventure through secret societies, Parisian cemeteries, and the shadows of their own past. But the biggest mystery of all is this: can a photographic film truly bring the dead back to life? And if so… at what cost?

  •  A cinematic, mysterious setting From Parisian rooftops to underground crypts, the novel mixes historical fiction and gothic horror into a vivid, suspenseful backdrop.
  • A unique premise A daguerreotype camera capable of capturing souls. Secret messages, old machines, and the uncanny power of photographs become the key to the plot.
Publisher: Mondadori
Target: 10+
Year: 2022
Author
Lucia Perrucci

Lucia Perrucci grew up in Puglia, on an isolated country road, surrounded by olive trees, cats, and film rolls. She was convinced she owned a velociraptor, so much so that her father gave her her first camera to prove it. Always in love with stories, she studied Literature in Bologna and Cinema at the Giffoni Film Festival. She's a creative writing instructor and contributes to magazines and anthologies. Today, she writes and teaches at a middle school, where she absolutely adores her students and always dedicates her stories to them. In 2022, she debuted with Mondadori with "La prodigiosa macchina cattura anime di Cassandra Apollinaire," which will also be published soon in France. "Nelle case dei morti non ci sono scale" (2024) is her second novel for young adults. This autumn, the fourth novel in "The Hidden Society" series, co-written with the Archer sisters for Castoro Off, will be released.

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