Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.
I’VE published five books with Penguin Southeast Asia and I’m happy to see their new books from my kababayan.
“Twin Plagues: How Duterte and Covid-19 Wrecked the Philippine Economy” by UP associate professor J.C. Punongbayan chronicles the Philippine economy under Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency from 2016 to 2022.
This was a period marked by authoritarian populism and the devastation of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Drawing on economic data, policy analysis and contemporary reporting, the book argues that weak governance and institutional erosion had already undermined economic performance well before the pandemic. The pandemic only exposed and magnified these failures, culminating in the country’s worst postwar recession and the deepest economic contraction in Southeast Asia.
The book challenges the persistent but misleading narrative that Duterte handled the economy well. It offers an economic counterpoint to a literature that has largely emphasized the war on drugs, media repression and foreign policy. Written in an accessible style, “Twin Plagues” is both economic history and a cautionary tale about how authoritarian populism can corrode governance and damage developing economies.
“Dreamt for Years in the Shadow of the Sun” is the latest novel of Karl R. de Mesa. It’s a gripping descent into a Manila in the claws of night and sinister folklore.
A crime thriller set in 1990s Metro Manila of the dark fantastic, Lenix and Elena are young misfits recruited to fight in the secret war against the cartel known as The Lords of Night. This organization rules the trade of the mysterious, highly addictive drug Fantoma.
On the team of the anarcho-shaman Conrad White Crow, they battle otherworldly creatures and monsters of folklore that control Fantoma’s manufacture and traffic. As their fates intertwine, Lenix and Elena discover how love can bloom in the shadow of an ancient war and the high cost they must pay for the power to win against their enemies.
The British writer Tom Sykes, who wrote “Imagining Manila,” calls this “a spellbinding, addictive, speedball of a novel.” On the other hand, the fiction writer Ronald Vivo notes that this novel “blurs the line between speculative fiction, horror and noir.” Jordan Clarke has a thundering judgment: “Hands down, a most thrilling epic novel.”
Mica de Leon is known for her tight plots and well-paced novels. She returns with the novel, “Love Between the Lines.”
Katharina Bautista — or Katha — is 37 years old. She has no money, no job prospects and no fiancé (a recent development). She’s a burden to her brother. And she’s frightened. But this might be a problem of her own making.
Meanwhile, Nick Malvar, the lead vocalist of the up-and-coming indie band Word Warlords, has been in love with his best friend’s older sister since high school. But he thinks all this time that she’s way out of his league (and in love with her boyfriend, a surgeon, to whom she’s engaged). However, in a surprising turn of events, a bedraggled Katha appears at his doorstep and lets him know that none of this is true anymore. She doesn’t know if she’s in love, and she’s definitely not engaged — yet.
Nick begins to like her. But Katha has a thousand reasons not to want him back. In her heart, what Katha wants is a fresh start, and not an exciting whirlwind romance. Be prepared to be surprised and charmed by de Leon’s latest confection.
Penguin Random House Southeast Asia, which is based in Singapore, has wisely invested in publishing romance novels which, along with speculative fiction and crime, are major bestsellers in the genre category.
The romance mode continues with the novel “The Love Letters of Via Lullina” written by Kyra Ysabel.
Lost in Florence, Filipino writer Isla Mendoza stumbles upon a mysterious bookshop on Via Lullina, a street that isn’t supposed to exist. Within its walls, she discovers an old book filled with enchanting love letters — and one addressed to her.
The letter is from Luca Rossi, a man whom Isla has never met. Too curious to let it go, she tracks him down, only to discover a grumpy Italian chef who thinks she is out of her mind. Is it then a case of destiny, as foretold by a magical letter? With love as the plot twist? No, grazie.
Drawn to the book for their own reasons, Isla and Luca begin an investigation. The more the pair try to resist, the more the book writes. What will happen when they reach the last page? That is the premise of this work, a page turner of a novel.
“Happily Ever After... Again” is the latest offering of the prolific Ines Bautista-Yao. The premise of the novel is interesting.
The world was going to be hers, or at the very least, Metro Manila was. That’s in her mind, until Ilya Sebastian’s husband sends her a text message meant for another woman. All of a sudden, giving up her career to take care of their twins and help her husband reach his corporate goals wasn’t the great idea it once was.
Now, slapped with an annulment from her cheating husband, Ilya has to figure out how to regain the self she had lost amid demanding preschoolers, overly curious fellow moms and her unsupportive mother.
Her life takes an even more unexpected turn when she meets endearing and charming David Francisco, the uncle of her twins’ best friend. He is single, a successful car shop owner, and a delight around kids. They end up bonding over preschool playdates, parent rep duties and tumultuous love lives. Their unexpected encounters make her heart forget that she had been hurt before. Hope dawns on her that maybe she has a chance at happily ever after... again?
And finally, Joy Pepito is a Filipino writer who has worked in Qatar and now does freelance writing in the Philippines. Her debut novel is called “Where It Leads Us.”
Seventeen-year-old Lauren Sanders is drowning in grief. After losing her parents and sister, Elise, she’s left alone with a pain no one understands — and a diagnosis she keeps hidden. To the outside world, she’s just a girl struggling with loss, but the voices in her mind and the shadows at the edge of her vision whisper of something far darker.
Then she finds a note — one that suggests Elise’s suicide wasn’t what it seemed. Desperate for answers, Lauren follows a chilling trail of cryptic messages, uncovering family secrets buried beneath years of silence. With the help of Aaren, a boy haunted by his own demons and drawn to untold stories, she pieces together fragments of a dark puzzle. But with each revelation, the line between truth and delusion begins to blur.
This is a novel best read at night, with all the lights on.
Our Penguin SEA books are available at Fully Booked, National Bookstore, Shopee and Lazada; Kinokuniya in Asia; and Amazon around the world.
This was a period marked by authoritarian populism and the devastation of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Drawing on economic data, policy analysis and contemporary reporting, the book argues that weak governance and institutional erosion had already undermined economic performance well before the pandemic. The pandemic only exposed and magnified these failures, culminating in the country’s worst postwar recession and the deepest economic contraction in Southeast Asia.
The book challenges the persistent but misleading narrative that Duterte handled the economy well. It offers an economic counterpoint to a literature that has largely emphasized the war on drugs, media repression and foreign policy. Written in an accessible style, “Twin Plagues” is both economic history and a cautionary tale about how authoritarian populism can corrode governance and damage developing economies.
“Dreamt for Years in the Shadow of the Sun” is the latest novel of Karl R. de Mesa. It’s a gripping descent into a Manila in the claws of night and sinister folklore.
A crime thriller set in 1990s Metro Manila of the dark fantastic, Lenix and Elena are young misfits recruited to fight in the secret war against the cartel known as The Lords of Night. This organization rules the trade of the mysterious, highly addictive drug Fantoma.
On the team of the anarcho-shaman Conrad White Crow, they battle otherworldly creatures and monsters of folklore that control Fantoma’s manufacture and traffic. As their fates intertwine, Lenix and Elena discover how love can bloom in the shadow of an ancient war and the high cost they must pay for the power to win against their enemies.
The British writer Tom Sykes, who wrote “Imagining Manila,” calls this “a spellbinding, addictive, speedball of a novel.” On the other hand, the fiction writer Ronald Vivo notes that this novel “blurs the line between speculative fiction, horror and noir.” Jordan Clarke has a thundering judgment: “Hands down, a most thrilling epic novel.”
Mica de Leon is known for her tight plots and well-paced novels. She returns with the novel, “Love Between the Lines.”
Katharina Bautista — or Katha — is 37 years old. She has no money, no job prospects and no fiancé (a recent development). She’s a burden to her brother. And she’s frightened. But this might be a problem of her own making.
Meanwhile, Nick Malvar, the lead vocalist of the up-and-coming indie band Word Warlords, has been in love with his best friend’s older sister since high school. But he thinks all this time that she’s way out of his league (and in love with her boyfriend, a surgeon, to whom she’s engaged). However, in a surprising turn of events, a bedraggled Katha appears at his doorstep and lets him know that none of this is true anymore. She doesn’t know if she’s in love, and she’s definitely not engaged — yet.
Nick begins to like her. But Katha has a thousand reasons not to want him back. In her heart, what Katha wants is a fresh start, and not an exciting whirlwind romance. Be prepared to be surprised and charmed by de Leon’s latest confection.
Penguin Random House Southeast Asia, which is based in Singapore, has wisely invested in publishing romance novels which, along with speculative fiction and crime, are major bestsellers in the genre category.
The romance mode continues with the novel “The Love Letters of Via Lullina” written by Kyra Ysabel.
Lost in Florence, Filipino writer Isla Mendoza stumbles upon a mysterious bookshop on Via Lullina, a street that isn’t supposed to exist. Within its walls, she discovers an old book filled with enchanting love letters — and one addressed to her.
The letter is from Luca Rossi, a man whom Isla has never met. Too curious to let it go, she tracks him down, only to discover a grumpy Italian chef who thinks she is out of her mind. Is it then a case of destiny, as foretold by a magical letter? With love as the plot twist? No, grazie.
Drawn to the book for their own reasons, Isla and Luca begin an investigation. The more the pair try to resist, the more the book writes. What will happen when they reach the last page? That is the premise of this work, a page turner of a novel.
“Happily Ever After... Again” is the latest offering of the prolific Ines Bautista-Yao. The premise of the novel is interesting.
The world was going to be hers, or at the very least, Metro Manila was. That’s in her mind, until Ilya Sebastian’s husband sends her a text message meant for another woman. All of a sudden, giving up her career to take care of their twins and help her husband reach his corporate goals wasn’t the great idea it once was.
Now, slapped with an annulment from her cheating husband, Ilya has to figure out how to regain the self she had lost amid demanding preschoolers, overly curious fellow moms and her unsupportive mother.
Her life takes an even more unexpected turn when she meets endearing and charming David Francisco, the uncle of her twins’ best friend. He is single, a successful car shop owner, and a delight around kids. They end up bonding over preschool playdates, parent rep duties and tumultuous love lives. Their unexpected encounters make her heart forget that she had been hurt before. Hope dawns on her that maybe she has a chance at happily ever after... again?
And finally, Joy Pepito is a Filipino writer who has worked in Qatar and now does freelance writing in the Philippines. Her debut novel is called “Where It Leads Us.”
Seventeen-year-old Lauren Sanders is drowning in grief. After losing her parents and sister, Elise, she’s left alone with a pain no one understands — and a diagnosis she keeps hidden. To the outside world, she’s just a girl struggling with loss, but the voices in her mind and the shadows at the edge of her vision whisper of something far darker.
Then she finds a note — one that suggests Elise’s suicide wasn’t what it seemed. Desperate for answers, Lauren follows a chilling trail of cryptic messages, uncovering family secrets buried beneath years of silence. With the help of Aaren, a boy haunted by his own demons and drawn to untold stories, she pieces together fragments of a dark puzzle. But with each revelation, the line between truth and delusion begins to blur.
This is a novel best read at night, with all the lights on.
Our Penguin SEA books are available at Fully Booked, National Bookstore, Shopee and Lazada; Kinokuniya in Asia; and Amazon around the world.