Silicon Heartbeats
Silicon Heartbeats is a debut literary novel by Alessandro Sappia, published on August 4, 2026.
What is Silicon Heartbeats?
Silicon Heartbeats is a Silicon Valley literary novel about a med-tech founder, artificial intelligence, and the human cost of changing the world. It is a work of fiction, not a thriller and not a memoir.
After witnessing a devastating medical error and watching his grandmother narrowly survive a misdiagnosis, Stanford PhD student Alex becomes determined to solve one of healthcare's deadliest problems.
What begins in a small, leaking office south of San Francisco grows into Vitanova, an AI-powered medical startup poised to transform diagnostic medicine. As the company rises to prominence, Alex finds himself caught between ambition and loyalty, innovation and ethics, success and the relationships that once defined him.
As the stakes rise, Alex is forced to confront a question that no technology can answer: What is the true cost of changing the world?
Book facts
- Title
- Silicon Heartbeats: A Novel
- Author
- Alessandro Sappia
- Published
- August 4, 2026
- Genre
- Literary Fiction
- Language
- English
- Length
- 164 pages
- Formats
- Paperback and Kindle eBook
- Paperback ISBN-13
- 978-9948-610-85-4
- eBook ISBN-13
- 978-9948-610-84-7
Themes
Innovation & Ethics
What we owe the people we set out to help — and what we risk forgetting along the way.
Ambition & Loyalty
The quiet cost of building something great, and what it asks of the people closest to us.
The Human Heart
Beneath the algorithms and funding rounds, a story about love, trust, and what we are willing to risk.
Redefining Success
A question that no technology can answer: what is the true cost of changing the world?
Who Silicon Heartbeats is for
If you follow Silicon Valley for the drama as much as the disruption — the late nights, the pitch decks, the friendships strained by scale — this novel was written for you. It is set in the world of medical technology and artificial intelligence, but the engine of the story is human.
Readers of contemporary literary fiction, book-club fiction, and thoughtful tech narratives will find familiar ground: ambition, love, loyalty, and the slow reckoning that arrives when a company grows faster than the life around it.
You do not need a background in medicine or machine learning. The book is written for anyone drawn to stories about founders, families, and the moral weather of building something that matters.
Expect a reflective, character-driven pace rather than a thriller. The tone is intimate and cinematic — Silicon Valley urgency giving way to quieter questions of meaning, place, and what remains when the metrics finally stop moving.
Award
Silicon Heartbeats received the Literary Titan Gold Book Award (Fiction), announced September 4, 2026.
Listed among the Fiction recipients on Literary Titan's September 2026 Gold Book Award announcement.
Literary Titan Gold Book Award
Fiction · Literary Titan · September 4, 2026 · Book award
Editorial reviews
Independent editorial coverage of Silicon Heartbeats includes reviews from Literary Titan (5 stars) and Novels Alive (4 stars).
Excerpts are quoted from the original articles. Ratings appear only when the outlet published one. Read each full review at the source.
“Alessandro Sappia’s Silicon Heartbeats is a novel about ambition, technology, love, and the uncomfortable question of what success is supposed to feel like once you’ve achieved it.”
5 stars · Literary Titan · August 23, 2026 · Editorial review
“Organized much like a memoir, the story combines the technical aspects of building an AI-powered diagnostic tool with the personal relational aspects.”
4 stars · Novels Alive · Amy W. · August 21, 2026 · Editorial review
Editions and where to buy
Silicon Heartbeats is available now as a paperback and as a Kindle eBook. Purchase links on this page go to Amazon and may earn the author an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you.
Affiliate notice: I am the author of this book. This Amazon link may earn me a commission from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.
Goodreads
Reader reviews for Silicon Heartbeats live on Goodreads.
Written by Alessandro Sappia. See also the FAQ and press page.