Clockwork Hearts: A Novella

Clockwork Hearts: A Novella

By Michael J. Citak

A gothic fairytale of grief, invention, and the quiet rebellion of becoming.

In the frost-laced alleys of 1880s Prague, time doesn't just pass-it watches. Tucked between forgotten chapels and soot-streaked clock shops, Herr Elias Kessler builds machines that breathe, remember, and mourn. But when a gifted young apprentice named Anya Kovarik discovers his greatest creation-an automaton with a heartbeat-she unravels a secret too human to be mechanical.

Lumière is not just a doll. Not just a memory. She is waking.

What begins as an apprenticeship becomes a quiet war of identity and agency. As gears stir with unspoken grief and automatons whisper in their sleep, Anya must decide what she believes about life, death, and the blurry threshold in between.

And Lumière must decide if she will live as someone else's echo-or die as herself.

Clockwork Hearts is a haunting, lyrical novella for fans of The Night Circus, Frankenstein, and The Golem and the Jinni. A story stitched from brass and bone, this tale lingers like a heartbeat out of time.