Deze auteur onderzoekt de ingewikkelde verbanden tussen geschiedenis, herinnering en identiteit in de context van de Filipijnse ervaring. Zijn schrijven wordt gekenmerkt door een rijke beheersing van taal en een diepgaand inzicht in de menselijke psyche. Gedreven door de wens om zijn land en zijn plaats in de wereld te begrijpen, creëert de auteur werken die zowel persoonlijk als universeel zijn. Zijn literaire stijl is vloeiend en suggestief, en trekt lezers mee in een tapijt van gedachten en emoties.
When an esteemed author is murdered, protégé Miguel seeks both answers and the whereabouts of a missing manuscript written to expose corruption among the Philippines' wealthy ruling families, an effort for which Miguel examines his mentor's life and writings.
First came the Sexy-Sexygate scandal. Then an impeachment trial. Finally, a battle royale for the presidency. At the center of this political typhoon is Vita Nova, the most famous movie star in the Phillippines and a former paramour of the country's most powerful man. Now, for the first time ever, she bares herself completely in a tell-all memoir that puts the sensational in sensationalistic. The setting: a sweating, heaving country. The time: right now. The plot: a drug war rages, an assassin brandishes a pistol, a damsel rises from ashes to power, and a government teeters on the brink. Among the players: a dreamer who boxed and acted his way to the presidency, his Koran-toting nemesis in the senate, a horny bishop, a cowboy turned warlord, a poor little rich boy dying with his dynasty, a washed-up reporter redeemed by one last scoop, a high-school sweetheart driven mad by decades of disappointment, and an American naval officer tempting our heroine with a way out. As Vita warns, viewer discretion is advised. In this masterful and audacious novel, Miguel Syjuco's signature style--hilarious, insightful, playful, provocative--animates thirteen indelible voices whose stories present a cross-section of a complicated society. I Was the President's Mistress!! hurtles headlong into love, politics, faith, history, memory, and the ongoing war over who will tell the stories the world shall know as truth.