What is the title of your latest release?
AN IMMACULATE DECEPTION
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Madalena falls pregnant with a child conceived in sin and her mother issues a threat: marry or surrender the baby. Confident that the father will propose, Madalena sets off to his sprawling estate but discovers he is no longer the charming poet she knew. Trapped in a decaying house of secrets, she must uncover the truth before the men around her destroy her, and before the hell she fears becomes the one she’s living in.
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I’m originally from Brazil and I love Latin American Gothic horror like Mexican Gothic and The Hacienda.
Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?
Yes, but I think it’s more interesting to hang out inside her head.
What are three words that describe your hero?
Madalena: hopeful, willful, thoughtful
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I learned to trust the characters and not outline so much. I still outline, but it’s more of a balance.
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I wait until I am done, except when I’m stuck. Then I have to go back a few chapters and comb it through and re-write. If the story is flowing, I keep going.
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Flan and chocolate
Describe your writing space/office!
I have many writing spots around my house, and also outside on the porch and yard. I write anywhere and everywhere. I like to change the scenery. I do have a beautiful office with bookshelves, but I rarely write there because I use that spot for other work. I write anywhere where there’s a desk and a comfortable chair. Sometimes I write from the couch.
Who is an author you admire?
Ruth Ware.
Is there a book that changed your life?
Paulo Coelho’s books, for their spiritual depth. THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS by Isabel Allende also profoundly affected me.
Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published). Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
The few days before getting the call I was an anxious mess. I checked my emails so often that I was driving myself nuts, so at one point I decided to just put my phone away. I had this superstitious belief that if I didn’t check my emails or calls at all, the call would come. And it worked! When I finally checked many hours later, I had a dozen missed calls and emails from my agent.
What’s your favorite genre to read?
Thrillers
What’s your favorite movie?
The Shining
What is your favorite season?
Spring
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Small party with my closest friends and family, or dinner with my husband
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
The book MOLKA by Monika Kim
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Japanese
What do you do when you have free time?
Write. When I’m not writing, reading and gardening
What can readers expect from you next?
Something dark, twisty, and mind-bending
AN IMMACULATE DECEPTION by Isabela Livino
A Novel
A debut Gothic horror set in 1870s Brazil—a tale of creeping suspense in which a young pregnant woman finds herself unable to escape her lover’s isolated family home, and a family’s deal with the devil goes terribly wrong
1877, Pernambuco, Brazil: Raised in a deeply religious household, Madalena knows Dante’s Inferno by heart and fears her mother’s reaction as much as she fears God. When she falls pregnant with a child conceived in sin, her mother issues a threat: marry or surrender the baby. Madalena is confident that the father, the dashing Leandro Neves, will do right by her and propose. But just as she is about to tell him about the baby, a violent storm sends their carriage careening off the road.
Madalena awakens in Leandro’s sprawling, secluded home, under the care of the mysterious and larger-than-life Doctor Lobo. Leandro is there . . . but he is no longer the charming poet she knew. He’s silent. Obsessed. Always watching.
Strange perfume haunts a locked room. Pages vanish from books. Jewels lie untouched in a forgotten wardrobe. And mirrors begin disappearing after Madalena sees something—or someone—ghastly in the reflection.
Leandro is unraveling. Doctor Lobo may be hiding something even darker. Trapped in a decaying house of secrets, Madalena must uncover the truth before the men around her destroy her, and before the hell she fears becomes the one she’s living in.
Horror [ Dutton, On Sale: September 1, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book / audiobook, ISBN: 9798217048373 / eISBN: 9798217048397 ]
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About Isabela Livino
Isabela Livino writes fiction with a dark, speculative twist. She studied philosophy at the University of Rochester before receiving a Master’s from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. When she is not writing, you can find her riding horses, designing apps, gardening, or watching horror films while cuddling with her furbabies. A native of Pernambuco, Brazil, she currently lives in Connecticut with her husband, their two Caribbean-born adopted coconut retrievers, and the river ducks.
Her debut gothic horror novel AN IMMACULATE DECEPTION is coming out in autumn 2026 from Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Random House, in the US, and from Gollancz in the UK.
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