Ilustrado Paperback by Miguel Syjuco

Product Details

• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton (2011-05-31)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 320 pages
• ISBN-13: 9780143172611
• Item Weight: 308.45 grams
• Dimensions: 8.22 x 5.28 x 0.86 cm

It begins with a body. On a clear day in winter, the battered corpse of Crispin Salvador is pulled out of the Hudson River-and taken from the world is the controversial lion of Philippine literature. Gone, too, is the only manuscript of his final book, a work meant to rescue him from obscurity by exposing the crimes of the Filipino ruling families. Miguel, his student and only remaining friend, sets out for Manila to investigate.

To understand the death, Miguel scours the life, piecing together Salvador’s story through his poetry, interviews, novels, polemics, and memoirs. The result is a rich and dramatic family saga of four generations, tracing a hundred and fifty years of Philippine history forged under the Spanish, the Americans, and the Filipinos themselves. Ultimately we learn that this story belongs to young Miguel as much as to his lost mentor, and we are treated to an unhindered view of a society caught between reckless decay and hopeful progress.

About the Author

MIGUEL SYJUCO is a Filipino writer, civil society advocate, and professor at New York University Abu Dhabi. His debut novel, Ilustrado, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and won the Man Asian Literary Prize and the Palanca Awards Grand Prize, his country’s top literary honour. He has worked as a contributing opinion writer for The International New York Times, written for many of the world’s most respected publications, and spoken on Philippine politics and culture at the World Forum for Democracy and the World Economic Forum. He serves on the advisory councils of both the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, an arts residency program, and the Resilience Fund, a project by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime to empower communities most threatened by criminality.