Three stories from Gina Apostol, Eric Gamalinda, and Lara Stapleton.

The Thirdest World: 3 Stories by Filipino Writers

Apostol, Gina

Stapleton, Lara

Gamalinda, Eric

Literature & Fiction

Factory School

Fiction. Literary Nonfiction. Asian American Studies. THE THIRDEST WORLD includes the work of Gina Apostol, Eric Gamalinda, and Lara Stapleton, winners of the Philippine National Book Award, the Philippine Centennial Literary Prize, and the Pen Open book award, respectively. The three writers, from three greatly varied perspectives, take a look at the histories of struggle, travel and loss inherent to the colonial experience. Two works of fiction are included by each author, along with an essay that discusses the relationship between identity and narrative in each writer's work. All three writers see a profound relationship between postmodern structures and the disjointed history of a twice-colonized country: the Philippines changed hands from Spain to the United States in 1898. Passionate, intricate, witty, subtle, wise and wildly fresh and new, THE THIRDEST WORLD will give readers fascinating trips over the Pacific and into novel worlds of creativity. "These stories chart the strained divide between loyalty and identity: the tough blossoms that flower in the shadow of the American tree. THE THIRDEST WORLD is an important book, not only for its prescient chronicling of postcolonial Filipinos, but also for its hic et nunc observations of Filipino identities. Apostol, Gamalinda, and Stapleton are three writers who deserve an international audience." —Sabina Murray

The Thirdest World: Stories and Essays by Three Filipino Writers

Contemporary

One of the Philippine Daily Inquirer's Top 10 Books of 2014 A NewPages Book Stand Editor's Pick "Darkly spellbinding...With a keen eye for splendor amid the grotesque, Gamalinda writes with a poet's heart and a philosopher's mind, while enthralling readers with emotional, gritty storytelling." --Booklist "A mesmerizing story full of mystery...intricate...beautiful writing." --Publishers Weekly "It's Gamalinda's best and most accessible novel yet, deserving to be read by as many people as possible." --Philippine Daily Inquirer "It felt so easy to get swept up in this novel. The language is beautiful....a beautifully written book." --NewPages "The wait for Gamalinda's first US based publication was well worth [it]...An indispensable, powerful portrayal of broken families trapped in the centripetal forces of transnational capital and postcolonial politics." --Asian American Literature Fans "Gamalinda...does indeed write fearlessly...in rich, unflinching prose. This storytelling stayed with me...I was compelled to keep reading by the strength of the writing (it's not for nothing that Gamalinda is the recipient of the Philippine National Book Award, a Palanca Memorial Award, and a Philippine Centennial Prize)." --Galatea Ressurects #24 "I recommend this book to those with large, giving hearts, who can afford to spend the emotional capital demanded here." --Basso Profundo "The Descartes Highlands is a psychologically taut drama that unravels right in front of you...I guarantee that you will be richly rewarded." --Zachary Mule "Behind Eric Gamalinda's jagged, ice-pick prose is an urgent need to connect and to understand. Are we more than the sum of our histories? What is this accident of being? Why is there anything at all? Written at the edge of a sinkhole and determined to resist its pull, The Descartes Highlands is about nothing less than the whole bewildering dream that is human consciousness." --David Hollander, author of L.I.E. "No one writes like Eric Gamalinda, though we wish we all could. The Descartes Highlands, an amazing work of brutal candor girded by a philosopher's calm, entwines our present despair with the horrific pasts we will not escape. One of the most dazzling novelists writing in America today, Eric Gamalinda has an almost classical Greek faith in the redemptive power of art. This novel delivers a commitment to beauty as unflinching as the bleak truths it tells--about globalization, about colonialism, about our human madness--offering in turn what seems our only, paradoxical hope: the pained telling of our story--a gorgeous and bitter feast." --Gina Apostol, author of Gun Dealers' Daughter Two men, each unaware of the other, share a common family secret: they were sold for adoption by their American father shortly after their births in the Philippines. Three alternating stories interweave the experiences of father Andrew Breszky and the two sons who try to connect and piece together the puzzle of their reckless, impulsive father. One lives in New York and the other grows up in the south of France, later traveling all over Asia as a documentary filmmaker. Both will discover that their relationships somehow echo that of the young man whose history eludes them. Celebrated Filipino writer Eric Gamalinda's international debut novel is a contemporary work of ideas that combines mystery, film noir, and existential philosophy. Highly intricate and written in a style reminiscent of the maverick narrative techniques of such filmmakers as Andrei Tarkovsky and Béla Tarr, and with some of the philosophical underpinnings of Michel Houellebecq or Javier Marías. Named after the region of the moon where Apollo 16 landed in the same year these men were born, The Descartes Highlands demonstrates that for lives marked by unrelieved loneliness, the only hope lies in the redemptive power of love.

The Descartes Highlands

United States

Akashic Books Ltd

Winner of the 2000 Asian American Literary Award for Poetry.

Zero Gravity

Alice James Books

The empire of memory

Anvil Pub

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