Early Reviewers

The acclaimed novel that won the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize (for an unpublished work). Ilustrado begins with Crispin Salvador, lion of Philippine letters, dead in the Hudson River. His acolyte Miguel investigates the author's demise and the disappearance of a manuscript about the corruption of Filipino ruling families. To understand the death, Miguel scours the life, charting Salvador's trajectory via his poetry, stories, interviews, novels, polemics and memoirs. The literary fragments become patterns become stories become epic: a family saga of four generations tracing 150 years of Philippine history forged under the Spanish, Americans and Filipinos themselves ˆ an expanse encompassing revolution, world war, communist struggle, the Marcos dictatorship and a society now fighting its own worst tendencies. In this astonishingly inventive and bold debut novel, Miguel Syjuco explores fatherhood, regret, revolution and the mysteries of lives lived and abandoned.