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Product Summary
Format: 
CD
CD
Publisher: Tantor Media
ISBN-10: 1400167205
ISBN-13: 9781400167203
Buy.com Sku: 214703674
Publish Date: 4/30/2010
Pages:
7
See more in Literary
| Garnering international prizes and acclaim even before its publication, Ilustrado is a daring and inventive debut novel that explores the hidden truths that haunt every family. |
|
From the Publisher:
Garnering international prizes and acclaim even before its publication, Ilustrado is a daring and inventive debut novel that explores the hidden truths that haunt every family. |
Annotation:
With charming wit, a huge reservoir of historical and political knowledge, and a penchant for literary games, Miguel Syjuco tells a wonderfully nuanced and multi-faceted story in his debut novel ILUSTRADO. Crispin Salavdor was his one of the preeminent voices of Philippine literature, and his former student Miguel (Syjuco tells his imaginative novel in a witty first-person) was one of his only friends. So when Crispin's barely recognizable body is dredged up from the Hudson River, Miguel undertakes an investigation. Searching for answers to the circumstances of his death and for the text to Crispin's final work, which would ensure him a place in the canon of world literature, Miguel travels to Manila. As literary detective Miguel pieces together Crispin's story from his mentor's writings, he unveils a multi-generational saga that follows course with the wild ride that has been Philippine history for the past century and a half. In ILUSTRADO, Syjuco weaves together a compelling cultural investigation with the poignancy of a family's secret history and a young writer's journey of discovery. Selected by the New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of 2010.
With charming wit, a huge reservoir of historical and political knowledge, and a penchant for literary games, Miguel Syjuco tells a wonderfully nuanced and multi-faceted story in his debut novel ILUSTRADO. Crispin Salavdor was his one of the preeminent voices of Philippine literature, and his former student Miguel (Syjuco tells his imaginative novel in a witty first-person) was one of his only friends. So when Crispin's barely recognizable body is dredged up from the Hudson River, Miguel undertakes an investigation. Searching for answers to the circumstances of his death and for the text to Crispin's final work, which would ensure him a place in the canon of world literature, Miguel travels to Manila. As literary detective Miguel pieces together Crispin's story from his mentor's writings, he unveils a multi-generational saga that follows course with the wild ride that has been Philippine history for the past century and a half. In ILUSTRADO, Syjuco weaves together a compelling cultural investigation with the poignancy of a family's secret history and a young writer's journey of discovery. Selected by the New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of 2010.
"[D]izzying and ambitious....[T]his imaginative first novel shows considerable ingenuity in binding its divergent threads into a satisfying, meaningful story." (starred review)
02/01/2010
"An ambitious debut novel...introduces an author of limitless promise....First novels rarely show such reach and depth....[I]t dazzles as brightly as Jonathan Safran Foer's EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED." (starred review)
03/01/2010
"[A] virtuoso display of imagination and wisdom, particularly remarkable from a 31-year-old author; a literary landmark for the Philippines and beyond." (starred review)
- Michele Leber
04/01/2010
"[W]ildly entertaining....absolutely assured in its tone, literary sophistication and satirical humor."
- Michael Dirda
05/06/2010
"[The book's] short chapters come in a cacophony of fonts and voices....The style is postmodern (or, as some prefix-happy critics call it, post-postmodern) right down to the faux footnotes. The novel is short, sharp and funny...."
- Joyce Hor-Chung Lau
05/08/2010
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