Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Sweet Haven by Lakambini Sitoy (New York Review of Books), 2014: now available


My novel Sweet Haven is now available as an ebook in North America, published by the New York Review of Books. Here is the synopsis from their website:

From a brilliant new talent, comes a sharp and sensual novel set in a decaying and unromanticized Philippines. In the little city of Donostia, bad news travels fast. So when 16-year-old Naia is found in an illicit pornography video, the tight-knit community is outraged. They want answers. The finger of blame soon points to Narita, Naia’s absentee mother, for putting career ahead of duty. Now Narita is back from Manila and must face her past and the memories of a life she fled. In search of the answers to her daughter's scandal, she follows a trail of evidence to reveal a web of family secrets, corruption, prejudice and the barriers of social class. 
At its heart, Sweet Haven is a story of a family buffeted by an ailing and intransigent nation, of the simple and bitter ways by which a family falls apart, and the brave leaps they can take to put themselves back together. Sharp-witted, keenly observant, with a passion for the rich tragic-comedy of life, Lakambini Sitoy takes on the everyday complacencies that can shatter a life – or save it.

An Il Vespaio (Hornet's Nest, 1970) blog

I have a new project: a fan blog titled " The Boys of Il Vespaio ", with a subtitle that mirrors this (I ragazzi del Hornet's ...