University of the Philippines Alumni Association of Toronto invites you to a private book reading.

Miguel Syjuco

A reading from Ilustrado

Friday, Nov 5th, 6 – 9:30 PM
Anthony’s Restaurant
1090 Don Mills Rd @ Lawrence, North York
$15 - Hors d’oeuvres. cash bar
$12 for UPAA members
Contact: info@upaatoronto.org
Limited Ilustrado copies will be sold at a discount.
Please reserve. Book signing follows.

Miguel Syjuco, Master’s degree from Columbia University and

graduate of Ateneo de Manila, will read from his book “Ilustrado,”
published by Penguin Books.

Miguel Syjuco’s Man Asian Prize winning debut Ilustrado opens in

New York City as a corpse is pulled from the Hudson River and
concludes on the coast of a deserted island in the Pacific Ocean.
Between these shores, life unfolds.
In a labyrinth of emails, journal entries, newspaper clippings, letters
and scraps of literary ephemera, these mysterious men and their
shared country are shown alternately in peril, and in their prime;
men of influence, and shadows of their former selves; a nation
alight with hope, and terrorist fuelled flames. Syjuco masterfully
reconciles these conflicting fragments with a twist of stunning
inventiveness that redefines the nature of truth and possibility.

“Brilliantly conceived, and stylishly executed, it covers a large and tumultuous historical
period with seemingly effortless skill. It is also ceaselessly entertaining,
frequently raunchy, and effervescent with humour.”
- Man Asian Prize jury citation

“An author of limitless promise. . . [Ilustrado] dazzles as brightly as Jonathan Safran Foer’s
Everything Is Illuminated.”- Kirkus