Manila Noir
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
“Travel, history, and a little bit of lore . . . Transports you to the Philippines and is filled with riveting and sometimes dark stories of the capital city.” —Glamour
For the perfect definition of noir, look no further than Manila. The city itself is like a femme fatale: sexy, complicated, and betrayed. From its fraught colonial history to its present-day incarnation of a teeming metropolis, it is a city of extremes: posh hotels and slums, religious zeal and superstitions, corrupt cops and heroic citizens.
Capturing the essence of Manila, one of the wildest cities on the planet, this collection of noir includes stories by Lourd de Veyra, Gina Apostol, Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo, F.H. Batacan, Jose Dalisay, Eric Gamalinda, Jessica Hagedorn, Angelo R. Lacuesta, R. Zamora Linmark, Rosario Cruz-Lucero, Sabina Murray, Jonas Vitman, Marianne Villanueva, and Lysley Tenorio.
“Manila practically defines [noir], as shown by the 14 selections in this excellent anthology . . . The Filipino take on noir includes a liberal dose of the gothic and supernatural, with disappearance and loss being constants.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Suffice it to say that what the Noir series in general, and Manila Noir in particular, does so well is to create a 360-degree mosaic of a place . . . By including so many perspectives, from so many walks of life, Manila Noir makes Manila seem as vibrant, and dangerous, and exciting, and confounding as it really felt to live there.” —Lit Wrap
“A collection of stories like Akashic’s forthcoming Manila Noir is enough to set a crime-fiction addict’s mouth watering.” —The New York Observer
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
While certain cities in past Akashic volumes might appear to lack an obvious noir element, Manila (like Mexico City, which shares many of the same problems) practically defines it, as shown by the 14 selections in this excellent anthology. As Hagedorn points out in her insightful introduction, Manila is a city burdened with a violent and painful past, with a long heritage of foreign occupation. The specters of WWII (during which the city suffered from U.S. saturation bombing), and the oppressive 20-year reign of dictator Ferdinand Marcos live on in recent memory. The Filipino take on noir includes a liberal dose of the gothic and supernatural, with disappearance and loss being constants. We read of families splintered by violence, drugs and desperation, mothers and fathers forced to leave their families to find work abroad. There's also the economic colonialism of call centers, a major form of employment in Manila. Sabina Murray's "Broken Glass," Lourd de Veyra's "Satan Has Already Bought U," and F.H. Batacan's "Comforter of the Afflicted" are among the stand-outs, along with Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo's superb graphic story, "Trese: Thirteen Stations."
