Continuing the Latin American tradition of investigating and adjudicating a past filled with political turmoil and violence through fiction, Loedel's impressive debut focuses on a returned exile who hopes to bring back his dead love, one of the many Disappeared from his country's Dirty War. As the living interact with the dead, Loedel explores questions of guilt and the complex ways individuals respond to love and history--and announces himself as an exciting new voice in literature.
The latest from Tomine is a memoir-in-vignettes exploring the most embarrassing and cringe-inducing moments of his life as an artist. From a reading at an empty bookstore to moments of mistaken self-importance to disastrous interviews, Tomine mines his life for hilarious anecdotes that shine a spotlight on the less charming aspects of creative life. However, it is in the tender and heartwarming scenes of life with his wife and children that Tomine's mastery really shows, demonstrating why he's one of this medium's true explorers of the quotidian.
The arrival of the Great Philippine Novel on what once was--and arguably still is, the shore of the Philippines' colonial master is not only cause for celebration but one more layer of historical irony for Apostol's exceptional and irreverent postmodern masterpiece, which buttresses what is ostensibly the diary of a Filipino revolutionary with a meta structure of academic repartee that showcases every weapon in the gifted Apostol's literary arsenal.
