This riveting work of Latino noir follows the paranoid underworld exile of Volfango Sanzo, a man so haunted by his secrets that he escapes to sprawling networks of underground tunnels and labyrinths in near-future America—where dissidents and “lunars” seek refuge from the smoldering ruins of a nation plagued by a deadly civil war and revolution. Volfango is certain that renegade genes in his DNA will be exposed by government-mandated “gene tests,” so he vanishes before his scheduled test date, terrified of being discovered and executed. He also suspects he is being hunted by a government ministry, who wishes to silence him before he speaks. What will he find in those dangerous underground worlds populated by rebels and pariahs? What secrets does he keep and will he survive against bleak odds?

Charlie Vázquez is a radical writer of Cuban and Puerto Rican descent. His fiction and essays have been published in various print and online publications and anthologies. He hosts a queer reading series in New York called PANIC! and is a retired experimental musician and photographer. Contraband is his second novel.