Philippine Edition of Cecilia Brainard’s War Novel at #CebuLitFest

PHILIPPINE EDITION OF CECILIA BRAINARD’S WAR NOVEL AT THE #CEBULITFEST

The Philip­pine edi­tion of Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard’s nov­el, When the Rain­bow God­dess Wept, will be released by the Uni­ver­si­ty of San­to Tomas Pub­lish­ing House. The author, Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard, will be at the Cebu Lit­er­ary Fes­ti­val (Cebu­Lit­Fest) on June 29 and 30, 2019, Ayala Cen­ter, Cebu, Philip­pines, to cel­e­brate this pub­li­ca­tion.

The inter­na­tion­al­ly acclaimed nov­el, When the Rain­bow God­dess, first appeared under the title of Song of Yvonne in 1991. New York pub­lish­er Dutton/Penguin pub­lished it in 1994 under the title of When the Rain­bow God­dess Wept. It was sub­se­quent­ly pub­lished by the Uni­ver­si­ty of Michi­gan Press (Ann Arbor Imprint).  The nov­el, which received favor­able reviews, was trans­lat­ed into Turk­ish by the Bilge Kul­tur Sanat in 2001. In print for almost thir­ty years, the nov­el remains the sub­ject of numer­ous aca­d­e­m­ic stud­ies and con­tin­ues to be used in Eng­lish, Lit­er­a­ture, His­to­ry, even Polit­i­cal Sci­ence class­rooms.

The book, the first of Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard’s three nov­els, was inspired by the lives of her par­ents dur­ing World War Two.  Brainard inte­grat­ed Philip­pine epics and folk­lore with accounts she heard from her par­ents who had to flee to Min­danao and join the guer­ril­la move­ment to resist the Japan­ese invaders. The result is an amaz­ing work of fic­tion, half-lyri­cal, half bru­tal real­i­ty, of World War Two in the Philip­pines as told through the eyes of the young pro­tag­o­nist Yvonne.

Kirkus Review cri­tiqued the Amer­i­can edi­tion of When the Rain­bow God­dess as fol­lows:

“A fast-paced, sen­si­tive­ly writ­ten first nov­el about the psy­cho­log­i­cal dam­age war wreaks, seen through the eyes of an intel­li­gent, resilient young girl. Dur­ing WWII, as Japan­ese forces invade her native city of Ubec in the Philip­pines, nine-year-old Yvonne Macaraig escapes with her father and moth­er into the moun­tains, where they stay in vil­lages whose inhab­i­tants are fight­ing the Japan­ese … The author, her­self born in the Philip­pines, skill­ful­ly inter­weaves real­is­tic events with myths of women fight­ers and god­dess­es, as well as fan­tas­tic dreams … Brainard’s appeal­ing char­ac­ters are larg­er-than-life peo­ple who change before our eyes, yet remain utter­ly con­vinc­ing.”

Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard is the author of two oth­er nov­els: Mag­dale­na and The News­pa­per Wid­ow, both pub­lished by the Uni­ver­si­ty of San­to Tomas Pub­lish­ing House. All three of her nov­els and many of her short sto­ries are set (or par­tial­ly set) in myth­i­cal Ubec, or Cebu back­wards. Born and raised in Cebu, Philip­pines, Brainard has found great inspi­ra­tion in the cul­ture, his­to­ry, and peo­ple of Cebu, of which she has writ­ten.

She has expressed delight that When the Rain­bow God­dess Wept now has a Philip­pine pub­lish­er since the Amer­i­can edi­tion was not eas­i­ly acces­si­ble to Fil­ipino read­ers.

She will be at the Cebu Lit­er­ary Fes­ti­val (Ayala Cen­ter, Cebu City) on June 29 and 30, 2019 to talk to those inter­est­ed in her work as well as sign copies of her books.

Brainard’s When the Rain­bow God­dess Wept and her oth­er nov­els (Mag­dale­na and The News­pa­per Wid­ow) will be avail­able at the #Cebu­Lit­Fest. You can also pur­chase these from the #UST­Pub­lish­ing­House.

Tags: book, nov­el, World War Two, WWII, World War II, fic­tion, lit­er­a­ture, Pacif­ic War, Philip­pines, Cebu, Min­danao

Read also:

https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2017/12/world-war-two-novel-when-rainbow.html

Also pub­lished in:  https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2017/12/world-war-two-novel-when-rainbow.html