From the acclaimed PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize-winning author of A Naked Singularity, a shockingly hilarious novel that tackles, with equal aplomb, both America’s most popular sport and its criminal justice system.

From Paterson, New Jersey, to Rikers Island to the streets of New York City, Sergio de la Pava’s Lost Empress introduces listeners to a cast of characters unlike any other in modern fiction: dreamers and exiles, immigrants and night-shift workers, a lonely pastor and others on the fringes of society - each with their own impact on the fragile universe they navigate. 

Nina Gill, daughter of the aging owner of the Dallas Cowboys, was instrumental in building her father’s dynasty. So it’s a shock when her brother inherits the franchise and she is left with the Paterson Pork, New Jersey’s failing Indoor Football League team. Nina vows to take on the NFL and make the Paterson Pork pigskin kings of America. All she needs to do is recruit the coach, the players, and the fans. 

Meanwhile, Nuno DeAngeles - a brilliant and lethal criminal mastermind - has been imprisoned on Rikers Island for a sensational offense. Nuno fights for his liberty - while simultaneously planning an even more audacious crime. 

In Lost Empress, de la Pava weaves a narrative that encompasses Salvador Dalí, Joni Mitchell, psychiatric help, emergency medicine, religion, theoretical physics, and everything in between. With grace, humor, and razor-sharp prose, all these threads combine, counting down to an epic and extraordinary conclusion.

Cast of Narrators: 

Main narration, by Edoardo Ballerini 

Nina Gill, read by Carol Monda 

Dia Nouveau, read by Brittany Pressley 

Nuno de Angeles, read by James Fouhey 

Major Harris, read by Bob Bray 

Daniel Gill, read by Richard Topol 

Sharon Seaborg, read by Quincy T. Bernstine 

Hugh Seaborg, read by Ryan Anderson 

Coach Elkins, read by Richard Ferrone 

Feniz Heredia, read by Tony Chiroldes 

Larry Brown, read by Jeff Gurner

Travis Mena, read by Dan Bittner

Nelson Cervantes, read by Gonzalo Ingram 

Solomon Hanes, read by David LeDoux

Reeves, read by Leo Coltrane

Ed Coin, read by Johnny Heller

Father Ventimiglia, read by Mark McCarthy

The Theorist, read by Geoffrey Campbell

Nina’s Father, read by Richard Poe

And with additional roles read by some of the above and by Francisco Burgos, Christina Delaine, Jim Frangione, Tavia Gilbert, Lianna Gomori, Pete Larkin, Angel Saldana, Adriana Sananes, Brandon Ruben, Paul Ruben, and the author, Sergio de la Pava.