Celebrating the centennial of his birth, the first-ever U.S. publication of Philippine writer Nick Joaquin’s seminal works, with a foreword by PEN/Open Book Award–winner Gina
Apostol
Nick Joaquin is widely considered one of the greatest Filipino writers, but until now he has remained little-known outside his home country. Joaquin wrote in English with the post-colonial
sensibilities of Junot Diaz, Teju Cole, and Jhumpa Lahiri and an ironic perspective of colonial history in the vein of Garcia Marquez and Vargas Llosa. His work meditates on the questions and
challenges of the Filipino individual’s new freedom after centuries of colonialism, exploring folklore, centuries-old Catholic rites, the Spanish colonial past, magical realism, and baroque
splendor and excess. This collection features his best-known stories, including “The Woman Who Had Two Navels” and “May Day Eve,” as well as a canonic play, A Portrait of the Artist as
Filipino.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global
bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished
scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
