Ilustrado

Winner of the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize



'A masterpiece' - Alberto Manguel, El Pais



'Miguel Syjuco is his country's most original and unflinching literary voice' - Salman Rushdie



Murder mystery. Literary puzzle. Bildungsroman. A tightrope taut between fact and fiction. An accusation and act of contrition. A society satirized in a shattered mirror. Ilustrado is a modern classic that defies classification.



Bold, demanding, but famously rewarding to intrepid readers, the novel starts with the waterlogged corpse of the great Filipino writer Crispin Salvador - then sweeps backwards and forwards through eras, genres, and narrative threads: weaving together generations of a complex history dictated by the once and future vainglories of the Philippine ruling class.



Now part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature. This edition features a new introduction by Robert Butcher.