Brainard’s Novel, MAGDALENA, Reissued with Illustrations

PALH (Philip­pine Amer­i­can Lit­er­ary House) announces the release of Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard, nov­el MAGDALENA, with illus­tra­tions by the author. The book is avail­able from Ama­zon for $14.95: <https://www.amazon.com/dp/1953716113>.

Pre­vi­ous­ly pub­lished by Plain View Press (2003) and avail­able in the Philip­pines (Uni­ver­si­ty of San­to Tomas Pub­lish­ing House 2016), this 2021 US edi­tion by PALH of MAGDALENA includes illus­tra­tions by the author.

Writ­ten in the frag­ment­ed style, Cecil­ia Brainard’s lyri­cal sec­ond nov­el Mag­dale­na, tells the sto­ries of three gen­er­a­tions of Fil­ipino women whose lives have been affect­ed by the Philip­pine Amer­i­can War, World War Two, and the Viet­nam War. The nov­el is a favorite among poets, aca­d­e­mics and fem­i­nists, and it  has been the sub­ject of aca­d­e­m­ic papers by Drs. John Jack Wigley, Rhodo­ra G. Mag­an, Ruth S. Riman­do, and others.

Alma Anonas-Car­pio reviewed the book for The Philip­pine Graph­ic (March 2016) say­ing: “The sto­ry of Magdalena’s life is a rich one, full of emo­tion­al inten­si­ty told with the bril­liant clar­i­ty of Manguer­ra Brainard’s pen. It made me cry and it made me sigh …Rarely have I read such exquis­ite com­mand of sto­ry­telling as I see in the pages of this nov­el. Here she uses the back­drop of a Japan­ese-occu­pied Philip­pines to max­i­mum effect, dev­as­tat­ing the reader’s emo­tions with­out giv­ing any quar­ter nor tak­ing any pris­on­ers. You die inside and come to life again when the feel­ings of hope hit you—and they will.”

Mid­west Book Review also praised the book: “Expert­ly writ­ten by Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard … Mag­dale­na is set in the chaot­ic back­drop of twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry East Asia. A roman­tic, pow­er­ful tale of three gen­er­a­tions of Fil­ipino women, writ­ten with a close eye on the ter­rors of war and the Japan­ese inva­sion of the Philip­pines dur­ing World War II, Mag­dale­na is an intense, involv­ing, high­ly rec­om­mend­ed saga that doc­u­ments author Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard as a gift­ed author with a mas­tery of sto­ry­telling that will keep the reader’s total atten­tion and engage­ment from first page to last!”

Con­tact palh@aol.com for more information.

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tags: books Philip­pines women; books Fil­ip­ina fic­tion; books Philip­pines lit­er­a­ture; books Philip­pines novel