Philippine Publications:
?The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata? by Gina Apostol (Anvil Publishing, Inc.)
AS WITH her debut novel, ?Bibliolepsy,? Apostol pushes the edge of the fictional page, as Gen. Raymundo Mata?s tale actually unfolds more in the voluminous footnotes than it does in the regular paragraphs themselves ? a dense, dizzying ride in narratives that are certainly not for the faint-hearted.
?Revolution? keeps turning into itself like a Filipino Ouroboros, as what we imagined about our heroes ? down to their words and images ? shifts in place. ?To compare our revolution ? the crux of our history ? to a hysterical patient on a hypothetical couch was just icing on the slanderous cake,? she writes. Apostol uses almost every format to get her story out and it?s audaciously rewarding as it is challenging. Ruel S. De Vera
?Finding God: True Stories of Spiritual Encounters? by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard and Marily Isip Orosa (Anvil)
PROBABLY the best argument yet on why religion or one?s relationship with a God should be a personal and strictly private matter. For one, very few people can write of their spiritual encounter without suddenly feeling like they?re bathed in divine light and held aloft by a choir of angels. Now airborne, their tales of enlightenment and crises surpassed start sounding too precious to be grounded. Either they sound episodic and remote, or they become intense and melodramatic. True, a spiritual encounter can render people speechless. At times, though, while reading this book, one wishes they had remained so. Pennie Azarcon-dela Cruz
?Gilda Cordero Fernando Sampler? by Gilda Cordero Fernando (Anvil)
TO PARAPHRASE Forrest Gump, this anthology of Gilda Cordero Fernando?s writings spanning nearly five decades is like a box of chocolates ? you never know what you?re going to get, only that it?s certainly going to be good.
Collecting magazine articles, short stories, newspaper columns, essays and book excerpts as well as photographs and paintings, the sampler reflects the author?s obsessions and enthusiasms, from the wrinkles of contemporary Pinoy pop culture to the universal search for enlightenment in the face of death.
Taken together, the writings offer a convincing argument that curiosity, humor and courage are really all you need to get the most out of life. Eric S. Caruncho
?Agenda for Hope: Sharing Prosperity? edited by Reuel R. Hermoso, Fernando T. Aldaba, Mary Racelis (Ateneo de Manila University Press)
TO CELEBRATE Ateneo de Manila University?s 150th anniversary, the school came up with Agenda of Hope, a collection of ideas from more than 40 faculty members representing 20 or so disciplines, on how to help move the country forward by addressing five key areas of engagement: to share prosperity, to democratize governance, promote sustainable development, transform and preserve Philippine identity and culture, and to inspire youth.
Expectedly, this volume reads like a textbook, a much-footnoted piece of technical and scholarly writing. Though well-intentioned, this collection of essays doesn?t make for an engrossing read, landmined as it is with NGO jargon and statistics. But to summarize its valid points, how do you share the country?s wealth more equitably?
Some suggestions from this book: Take a leaf from Chinese merchants who view each other not so much as competitors, but as comrades in trade. Don?t just sell, try to change consumer behavior and point them to more sustainable retail habits, such as the four Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle, respect the ecosystems).
Come up with affordable Bayanihan food packs with products sourced directly from farmers, thus giving them a better profit margin. Practice Economy of Communion, that is, embedding Filipino values into trade. Allocate a percentage of profit into community projects. And this, from the Ateneo?s John Gokongwei School of Management: teach students to become entrepreneurs as this would generate more jobs.
The secret to sharing prosperity, according to this book, is to share time, talent, energy and resources ? sound and simple. PAC
?101 Consumer Behavior? by Myra Lao Jucutan and Felix M. Lao Jr. (Anvil)
HOW do you keep your customers and clients coming back? This small book shares 101 insights on consumer behavior based on the authors? joint experiences in marketing, advertising and business.
Some of the tips are fairly well-known or self-evident (good product, location, promotions, value-added services), but the rest are new, with one or two explanatory paragraphs and illustrative examples that are very useful (i.e. the concept of avoidance behavior, impulse buys, repositioning, etc.) One major minus: perhaps in the authors? desire to come up with an impressive number (101, which also denotes a basic course or source of information), the tips tend to be repetitive and redundant albeit phrased differently. Caveat emptor! PAC
?How, How the Carabao: Tales of Teaching English in the Philippines? edited by Isabel Pefianco Martin (ADMU Press)
PART of the Agenda for Hope series, this slim volume is an entertaining collection of essays detailing how devoted teachers deal with the challenges that come with teaching a second ? and often inscrutable ? language to public school students.
Teaching a foreign language may not be the best argument for the Agenda for Hope?s goal of preserving culture and identity, but as this book illustrates, the task brings out the heroic resolve among teachers to open more doors for their students through this universal language.
You might smile or guffaw at some of the carabao English cited in this book, but you?ll definitely be touched by the last selection, ?Never Give Up on Geoffrey,? which excellently sums up the book?s noble intention. PAC
?Baguio Calligraphy? by Francis Macansantos & Luchie Maranan (Anvil)
?The Baguio We Know? by Grace Celeste T. Subido (Anvil)
IN his identical foreword to both anthologies, Cirilo Bautista notes that ?Writers? works are begotten by their environment? We are where we are ? the stimulus of physical ecology, the genius of nature ? provides the paradigm of ideas for the ecology of thought and in the case of writers, for the ecology of creation.?
Little wonder then that Baguio ? with its cool fog-shrouded clime, the remembered smell of pine trees, and the cold nights that demand a libation ? would produce a slew of poets, writers and artists who have become this city?s ?unofficial memory keepers,? as the editors of ?Baguio Calligraphy? describe it.
With the unending stream of migrants ? recently, from as far as Korea ? and the rapidly changing urban landscape, there is a rush to fix on the printed page an indigenous culture and way of life before burgeoning malls, parking lots and fast food joints consign them to history books.
Both volumes showcase the best works of Baguio-bred and Baguio-based writers, with poetry and fiction being the main stuff of ?Baguio Calligraphy,? and nostalgia pieces and memoirs filling up the pages of ?The Baguio We Know.? These writers, says Bautista, ?expose time and experience, the building blocks of wisdom, to reflect on Baguio?s phenomenal influence on the soul.? PAC
?Pilgrim in Transit? by Victor Peñaranda (Anvil)
IN PEÑARANDA?S second collection of poetry after 1995?s excellent ?Voyage in Dry Season,? there is a sense of stillness at the start of every poem, only to be disturbed, often suddenly and often near the very end, by some rustle of movement or realization. From the beautiful title poem onwards, one sees Peñaranda as the supplicant to the greatness that surrounds him on a journey of veneration through both far-off places (Macedonia, Thailand) and those closer to home (Samar and Parañaque).
?Pilgrim? is a mighty and yet elegant show of distilled emotion, from the rambunctiousness of ?On the Road? to the sadness of ?Perfect Dragon? and the intimacy of ?Last Resort.? The perfect poetry book to take while visiting or even while standing still in the summer. RSDV
?Celebrations: A Culinary Feast from the Roces-Reyes Table? by Karla Prieto Delgado, Gianna Reyes Montinola, Cristina Roces-Garcia, Ginny Roces-de Guzman, Sylvia Roces-Montilla, Vicky Veloso-Barrera (Anvil)
THIS sumptuous book might as well be a family album of the Roces-Reyes clan, complete with well-loved heirloom recipes of mostly Spanish dishes, sepia-tinted photographs, and inter-generational stories and family lore, served with the irresistible and redolent aroma of nostalgia. Definitely a keeper. PAC
?The Lost Language? by Marianne Villanueva (Anvil)
NOT exactly the book you?d take to the beach, lest you walk straight into the surf with your dark mood weighing you down. There is a pervading sense of loss in this slim collection of stories, as desolate characters ponder their scars, their patched-up lives, surreal dreams, and brief, brittle joys. But read it if only for the well-crafted language and remarkable characters that will keep you glued to the page, even as you glimpse the severed hand of a character?s nightmare from your peripheral vision or smell the curdled recriminations from relationships gone sour. PAC
?The Highest Hiding Place: Poems? by L. Lacambra Ypil (ADMU Press)
THERE is poignant, painful discovery laced throughout Ypil?s first book of poetry. As his persona reaches out and begins to make sense of what surrounds the poet, the poems touch the world, alternately reeling and reveling in poems like ?The Discovery of Poetry? and ?The Love of Books.?
Ypil ponders roles as well as devotions, all the while using words as well as silences to mesmerize the reader. The poems about family really hit home ("The Firsts of Love? and ?Dad Tests For Grade One?), but it?s the ones about the deep recesses of his own discovery ("Touch? and ?The Whole Story?) that make this debut collection a sharp and smart standout. RSDV
?60zens: Tips on Senior Citizenship? by Jun Balde (Anvil)
TIP #1: Laugh. Tip #2: Laugh some more. Tip #3-100: Laugh and laugh hard while you still can. Fortunately, there?s no shortage of mirth in this book, which is a collection of hilarious, self-deprecating essays on aging, bilingual poetry on the same topic, and a seemingly endless list on the lighter side of growing old. An excellent showcase of how to laugh at one?s self and the infirmities that come with the years. Now there?s something that even Alzheimer?s disease can?t get at. PAC
?Underpass? by various creators (Summit Media)
A CHILLING journey to the dark, hidden places we fear, ?Underpass? is a comic book anthology featuring four well-crafted horror stories.
In ?SIM,? Gerry Alanguilan shows just how much can go wrong when one picks up a discarded SIM card in a jeepney. Betrayal comes in many colors in ?Judas Kiss,? a tale from David Hontiveros, Budjette Tan and Oliver Pulumbarit. There is a magnetic quality to the violence found in Hontiveros? and Ian Sta. Maria?s ?Katumbas.? Vanity and fame come at a pretty price in ?The Clinic,? from Tan and Kajo Baldisimo. ?Underpass? is a sidetrip worth your attention as it is both disturbing and amazing. RSDV
All titles available at leading bookstores.
Foreign Publications:
?Mateki: The Magic Flute? by Yoshitaka Amano (Radical Books)
JAPANESE visual artist Yoshitaka Amano has won a devoted cult following among otaku for, among other works, the anime Vampire Hunter D, the video game Final Fantasy and his collaboration with Neil Gaiman in one of the latter?s Sandman series. His baroque imagination coupled with flawless abilities with line and color has resulted in indelible images that push the boundaries of illustration into the realm of fine art.
Based on the Mozart opera, Mateki: The Magic Flute is the artist?s reimagining of the character of the Queen of Darkness, with a few distinctly Japanese visual flourishes. Created before his groundbreaking work in anime, Mateki prefigures Amano?s mature style. Fans of his work should be able to gain an insight into the wellspring of creativity from which his images are birthed. ESC
?The Elegance of the Hedgehog? by Muriel Barbery (Europa Editions)
TRANSLATED from the French, Barbery?s second novel is a very quirky series of encounters at the ritzy Parisian apartment building at No. 7, Rue de Grenelle. Readers will get to see the tenants? various avocations through the eyes of the two memorable narrators, the homely and unexpectedly autodidact concierge Renee and the precocious 12-year-old Paloma.
Barbery keeps his characters busy, hustling through the lobby and their furtive lives. A refreshing read in many ways though perhaps also an acquired taste, ?Hedgehog? is both cute and cutting. RSDV
?Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage? by Elizabeth Gilbert (Viking)
THE bestselling author of ?Eat, Pray, Love? ? mainly on how she coped with heartbreak after a disastrous divorce ? has understandingly sworn off marriage. That is, until she meets this Brazilian guy Felipe, whom she must marry, according to the US Homeland Security, if they are to live together legally in the US.
In the meanwhile, while Immigration vets their papers, they are to stay out of the US until contacted by their lawyer. And that?s how the couple found themselves living on the cheap in different Asian countries.
Unwilling to settle down as wife but also loathe to part with Felipe, the author tries to find some meaning in marriage by digging deep into its meanings and incarnations through research and countless interviews with women from other cultures. And this is what makes the book a brilliant gem: it?s actually a very accessible historical account of how marriage has evolved into a respected institution from its dark days as a mercenary tool to protect titles and property, women included.
There are insights as well on why marriage in the Western world has such wobbly legs, among them the tyranny of choice, the weight of expectations, the insularity of families, and of late, gender expectations.
Of particular interest are the acrobatic ways by which the Catholic Church has contorted itself to accommodate marriage as a sacred rite when it was formerly condemned as a terrible distraction that leads men away from the worship of God and into sex and sin:
In Florence during the 1600s, for instance, a monk (ergo, celibate) named Brother Cherubino was entrusted with the extraordinary task of writing a handbook for Christian husbands and wives that would clarify rules for what was considered acceptable sexual intercourse within Christian marriage and what was not.
?Sexual activity,? Brother Cherubino instructed, ?should not involve the eyes, nose, ears, tongue, or any other part of the body that is in no way necessary for procreation.? The wife could look at her husband?s private parts, but only if he was sick, and not because it was exciting?And while it was permissible for Christians to bathe every now and then, it was terribly wicked to try to make yourself smell good in order to be sexually attractive to your spouse?
In the course of making peace with marriage, the author examines this institution with wit, intelligence, grace and compassion, debunking myths, discarding fears and finally accepting that for all its complexities and challenges, such universal commitment is often a celebration of love. PAC
?The Last Words of Dutch Schultz? by William S. Burroughs (Arcade Publishing)
THE GODFATHER of Hip, Burroughs was a notorious drug addict, homosexual and prolific literary genius. Shot through with surrealism and black humor, his writings prefigure the obsessions of our age.
Written in the form of a screenplay, The Last Words of Dutch Schultz takes off from the actual police transcript of the delirious ramblings of the famous gangster as he lay dying in a hospital bed, the victim of a mob hit. Weaving his own fantasies into this armature of fact, Burroughs creates a vivid re-imagining of the gangster mythos. ESC
?The Unwritten Vol. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity? by Mike Carey and Peter Gross (Vertigo Comics)
PERHAPS the smartest comic book on the shelves today, this is the first volume about the metafictional misadventures of Tommy Taylor, the real-life basis for a Harry Potter-like series of books written by his father, who has gone missing. But the creative team behind the series ?Lucifer? mixes up genre, mystery and magic.
Tommy finds himself the target of murder and mischief as Carey pushes the edges of what?s real and what?s read in this darkly irresistible first volume of the series. ?The Unwritten? gives you the closest thing there is to traveling from one book to another ?albeit with something wicked closely pursuing. RSDV
?Green Zone: Imperial Life in the Emerald City? by Rajiv Chandrasekaran (Vintage)
MATT Damon may be on the cover, but this book is no novel. The former Washington Post Baghdad bureau chief has written the definitive chronicle of the troubled reconstruction of Iraq.
Want to know what really goes on behind the bullet-riddled walls of the International Zone? Read this. Full of surprising details and memorable characters, this book features a new introduction from the movie adaptation?s director, Paul Greengrass. It doesn?t really need it.
?Green Zone? leaves no hot stone unturned as it explains exactly how and why the American occupation of Bahgdad was doomed almost from the very beginning. RSDV
?Too Many Murders? by Colleen McCullough (Simon & Schuster)
SO how do you solve 12 murders committed on a single day during the Cold War days of 1967? Are the crimes even inter-connected? How many killers are involved? This is definitely a page-turner as chief of detectives Carmine Delmonico and his team unravel layers of intrigue involved in the killing of, among others, a mother and her Down?s Syndrome afflicted toddler, a streetwalker, a young wholesome coed, a doddering elderly woman, two young blacks, a ponderous college professor, an obese suburban dad and a black cleaning lady. With a possible Russian spy and industrial secrets thrown into the pot, this thriller makes for one breathless chase that will leave readers winded but highly satisfied with the rather unexpected ending. PAC
?Point Omega: A Novel? by Don DeLilio (Scribner)
THE ?Underworld? author goes lean this time as this slim volume captures the clash between the ideas of his characters in the middle of the desert. Take a former technocrat named Richard Elster who has retired from the planning of war with much regret, and add a dedicated filmmaker named Jim intent on capturing the truth, and you?ve got conflict. When Elster?s independent daughter Jessica joins them, the intellectual sparks just fly.
There is an amiable energy surrounding the three of them but this is dashed by something drastic as the novel draws to a close. It will leave you hanging, with a lingering sadness more than disappointment. RSDV
?I Am An Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World? by Eve Ensler (Villard)
ON top of unsettled and unsettling hormones, girls have to cope with extreme pressures from the media, their culture, parents, the law and religion, on how to grow into their approved social role, contends Ensler, whose controversial ?Vagina Monologues? have opened up a previously taboo topic on women?s thoughts about their sexuality.
Girls, according to Ensler, are ?encouraged to shut down their instincts, their outrage, their desires and dreams, to be polite, to obey the rules.? This book celebrates that authentic and often stifled voice inside every girl through poems, rants, questions, stories, monologues and essays that are interspersed with current statistics on the dangers they are heir to by virtue of their youth and gender (sex trafficking, unplanned pregnancies, etc).
Although the selections in this book are ?a call to question rather than to please,? they are far from being uniformly grim or harsh. They can be funny (as in the poem spoofing most girls? desire to belong to the school clique of cool girls), intense, riotous and theatrical, and always, achingly honest. PAC
?Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter? by Seth Grahame-Smith (Grand Central Publishing).
CONSIDERING the author is the progenitor of the monster mash-up trend with his ?Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,? it isn?t surprising how this book takes something familiar (American history) and then mixes in the supernatural (vampires), turning the Great Emancipator into the Great Eviscerator.
Using a Civil War expert?s discovery of Lincoln?s records of his nocturnal activities is smart, and as Lincoln the Great Emancipator turns out to be a devoted pursuer of the undead, many enemies turn out to be of the fanged persuasion. It?s inspired and wacky, but your mileage varies once you get over the kooky premise. RSDV
?The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon? by David Grann (Vintage)
SOME call it El Dorado, but Z, the mythical city in the heart of the Amazon is deadly, mysterious folly to those who seek it. A regular at The New Yorker, Grann focuses in particular on two ill-fated expeditions to Z, one in 1925 and the other in 1996. Then, Grann himself plunges into the jungle.
One starts to wonder if the author has been infected with the same madness that has enraptured the many explorers gone missing. Soon Grann starts to ask the same of himself. Reading like a real-life Indiana Jones adventure with requisite real-world results, this is an impeccably written, gripping book with its own share of lofty ambition and tragic consequences. RSDV
?Horns? by Joe Hill (Orion Books)
FAMOUS and self-indulgent, Ignatius Martin Perrish ? better known as Ig ? thought the good life would go on forever for him. He had a woman he really loved as well as the means to go wherever he wanted. But when his girl Merrin is mysteriously killed, Ig realizes to his horror that he is, literally, starting to grow a pair of horns. That and the unexplained gift of clairvoyance starts Ig on the nasty road to revenge.
Also known as Stephen King?s son, Hill has carved out a deserved career as a horror author on his own fearful merits (the novel ?Heart-Shaped Box? and the story collection ?20th Century Ghosts?). His distinctive rock-and-roll sense of fear is all over ?Horns,? another piece of a growing puzzle that is Hill?s kind of scary anatomy. RSDV
?This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All? by Marilyn Johnson (HarperCollins)
THE DEWEY decimal system meets the digital age in this ode to all things related to modern library science. How exactly do the guardians of the date due deal with the Internet and the changing needs of students around the world? ?Overdue? goes to Rome and New York to show us how. It?s charmingly written and compact, welcome on library shelves ? and online databases ? for a variety of reasons. RSDV
?Danse Macabre? by Stephen King (Gallery Books)
WHO ELSE to speak about the nature of horror but the master of horror novels himself? This tome gathers all of King?s ruminations about the genre he helped perfect. The 1983 original is bolstered by a terrific new essay appropriately called ?What?s Scary.? This is a cerebral, pointed collection of thoughts about frightening movies, and King makes it nerdy and entertaining at the same time. RSDV
?The Wife?s Tale? by Lori Lansens (Little, Brown and Company)
SUGGESTED alternative title: How Mary Gooch lost a hundred pounds and regained her husband. Although this is a fast and interesting read, the premise is too thin to hold much thought, let alone surprises.
Fat wife has allowed life?s disappointments to maroon her in her cozy home, where she constantly runs to the ref for comfort. Husband has had enough and leaves.
Wife looks for him and finds a whole world out there where she discovers, to her elated relief, that she can fend for herself and make friends along the way. Of course all that walking and unintended workout melt her cellulite and she emerges from her misadventures a slimmer and more confident woman.
As you might expect, she reunites with truant hubby and celebrates her newfound friend: herself, of course. PAC
?The Vagrants? by Yiyun Li (Random House)
CHINA in the late ?70s at the heels of the Cultural Revolution is a dangerous place and time to live, as ideologies teeter on the shifting sands of loyalties brought about by the death of Communist Party chair Mao Tse Tung.
Gu Shan, a former die-hard Mao follower, is about to be executed as a counter-revolutionary. The sordid circumstances of her death bring about drastic changes in the lives of her distraught parents and other neighbors in the small village of Muddy River.
How political survival, family loyalties, sexual proclivities and the need for basic sustenance rule one?s decisions are shown brilliantly in this novel that seamlessly weaves together the lives of several memorable characters: a serious seven-year-old boy aching to belong, a sinister and opportunistic idler, a beautiful broadcaster married into a powerful family, a crippled girl devalued for her disability, and a young Party official torn between love for his wife and filial piety.
An emotional tour de force that will leave you eternally grateful that you can only experience that historic period vicariously. PAC
?The 8th Confession? by James Patterson with Maxine Paetro (Grand Central Publishing)
A HIGHLY-PROMISING premise: someone?s killing all the rich people in the city. What dirty secrets do they hide? What do their deaths have to do with the brutal murder of a homeless man? Might otherwise be titled Vice, Envy & Retribution.
An easy summer read, but like a bowl of popcorn you dip into compulsively during a movie, it?s all bulk with no distinct taste. Everything ties up neatly, but you can hardly recall what you?ve just read an hour later. PAC
?The Elephant Vanishes? by Haruki Murakami (Vintage International)
?Salmonella Men on Planet Porno? by Yusaka Tsutsui (Vintage Contemporaries)
THE MODERN condition is characterized by a vague unease, and the nagging feeling that what we perceive as reality is merely a social construct that is beginning to fray at the edges, and that some insignificant event could knock it completely off kilter, revealing an entirely new layer of reality.
It should come as no surprise that some of the most successful practitioners of what has come to be known as meta-fiction come from Japan, which as most cyberpunk enthusiasts know, is futureworld.
In the title story of Haruki Murakami?s anthology of short fiction, an elephant vanishes mysteriously from a fictional town, leading the protagonist to question the very nature of his existence.
A lot of Murakami?s stories are like that, about normal humdrum lives suddenly interrupted by a surreal occurrence ? a green monster burrows out of someone?s backyard, a housewife suddenly loses the need to sleep ? and the protagonists come to the realization that life isn?t at all what they thought it was.
Tsutsui?s take is closer to science fiction, and much funnier. The last holdout in a smoke-free world defiantly vows to finish his last cigarette as the anti-smoking police close in.
A nondescript salaryman becomes a celebrity when the media inexplicably start reporting on his every move. People attempt to hold on to their normal lives as the world tilts into the ocean.
Although their methodologies may differ, both authors present a slyly subversive take on modern life as we know it. If you?ve ever felt that there?s more under the surface of your day-to-day existence than you?ve been led to believe, then either or both authors could be just the antidote you need for the modern malaise. ESC
?Toyminator? by Robert Rankin (Gollancz)
THE SEQUEL to the hilarious ?The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse,? this book opens with Toy City in turmoil as hysteria about an impending Armageddon spreads. Or maybe it?s just an alien invasion. It falls upon private investigator Eddie Bear to sort all this out and somehow save the day. Rankin?s version of the cutesy toys and stuffed animals come to life remains as uproariously fun and dark as ever. Highly recommended for fans of the ironic. RSDV
?Drood? by Dan Simmons (Little, Brown and Company)
CHARLES Dickens takes a walk on the dark side in Simmons? imaginary chronicle of Dickens? last days. For five years, Dickens is haunted by a name, ?Drood,? as well as a horrific train accident in which only Dickens? carriage miraculously emerges unscathed but not unchanged.
Nocturnal forays to London?s shadowy underside only hint at what is happening to him. A bit overdone (it runs unnecessarily long at 750 pages), ?Drood? has its own gravity, pulling the reader along, even over the slower parts.
This is a re-imagining of Dickens that is distinctive and dark enough to keep one reading to the end. RSDV
?The Angel?s Game? by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Phoenix)
FOR a writer, the opportunity to change the world is a delicious concept that knows no price. But is this tempting deal worth losing one?s soul?
So goes the premise of ?The Angel?s Game,? bestselling author Carlos Ruiz Zafon?s follow-up to his highly-acclaimed novel ?The Shadow of the Wind.? Like his previous work, this book takes the reader by the nose into a gripping mystery rife with suspense, action, passion, and an unlikely twist that will hit you with the force of a runaway train.
Follow David Martin, a budding writer who makes his living through farfetched stories of oddity, murder and deadly lust, as he settles into this decrepit mansion whose dark secret leads him into a race against time to save what?s left of his humanity and sanity.
For those who found Zafon?s previous novel too sunny for their taste, ?The Angel?s Game? proves to be the perfect antithesis. Brooding, dark and full of surprises, it brings the reader into the twisted mind of an individual locked in a struggle against his personal demons, some of which may be more than his imaginings. Emil Karlo Dela Cruz
All titles available from National Book Store.
