Six books by writers from the Philippines, set there, that give a real sense of the place, starting with Noli Me Tangere and Dogeaters.
Filipino literature is anchored by José Rizal's 1887 novel Noli Me Tangere, which exposed Spanish colonial rule and the power of the friars. Rizal wrote it in Spanish, and its darker sequel, El Filibusterismo, followed. Older still are oral epics such as the Hudhud, chanted by the Ifugao people of northern Luzon, and Francisco Balagtas's poem Florante at Laura. After American rule began in 1898, English became a major literary language alongside Filipino and Spanish.
Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters is a restless panorama of Manila in the Marcos years, mixing film, politics and class. Ninotchka Rosca's State of War, set on a fictionalised island under martial law, blends folklore with the brutality of dictatorship. Miguel Syjuco's Ilustrado threads Filipino history through Marcos and after in a missing writer's story. Colonial rule and dictatorship recur throughout.
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The foundational 1887 novel exposing Spanish colonial rule, friar power and elite society in the late nineteenth-century Philippines; widely available in English translations.
A kaleidoscopic portrait of Manila in the Marcos years, mixing film, politics, class and corruption in a vivid social panorama.
A Manila-rooted, multi-voiced novel tracing Filipino history from Spanish colonialism through Marcos and after, through a missing writer's story.
Rizal's darker sequel to Noli Me Tangere, showing revolutionary frustration and colonial injustice in the Spanish-ruled Philippines.
A postwar Manila and Hong Kong-set novel exploring Spanish-era memory, revolution's legacy and Filipino identity.
A novel of a fictionalised Philippine island during martial law, blending folklore, revolution, and the brutality of dictatorship.
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