Manila Noir (Akashic Noir)

Fresh noir from one of the most intense, congested, and overpopulated cities in the world. Launched with the summer '04 award-winning best seller Brooklyn Noir, Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies. Each book is comprised of all-new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book. Brand-new stories by: Lourd De Veyra, Gina Apostol, Budjette Tan & Kajo Baldisimo, F.H. Batacan, Jose Dalisay Jr., Eric Gamalinda, Jessica Hagedorn, Angelo Lacuesta, R. Zamora Linmark, Rosario Cruz-Lucero, Sabina Murray, Jonas Vitman, Marianne Villanueva, and Lysley Tenorio. One of the most populous cities in the world, Manila provides the ideal, torrid setting for noir. It's where the rich rub shoulders with the poor, where five-star hotels coexist with informal settlements, where religious zeal coexists with superstition, where "hospitality" might be another word for prostitution, where politics is often synonymous... "While certain cities in past Akashic volumes might appear to lack an obvious noir element, Manila (like Mexico City, which shares many of the same problems) practically defines it, as shown by the 14 selections in this excellent anthology. As Hagedorn points out in her insightful introduction, Manila is a city burdened with a violent and painful past, with a long heritage of foreign occupation. The specters of WWII (during which the city suffered from U.S. saturation bombing), and the oppressive 20-year reign of dictator Ferdinand Marcos live on in recent memory. The Filipino take on noir includes a liberal dose of the gothic and supernatural, with disappearance and loss being constants." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "This Southeast sampler is unique, possessing an overall gritty tone. Each slice of supernatural splendor pulls the reader in with their nontraditional heroesUltimately, readers get a strong taste of the real Manila and all her dark secrets, wanting more of while being slightly afraid of what she might do next. Manila is the perfect place for noir scenes to occur, and it is easy to get sucked into its deadly nightshade of doom." -- Criminal Class Press Brand-new stories by: Lourd De Veyra, Gina Apostol, Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo, F.H. Batacan, Jose Dalisay Jr., Eric Gamalinda, Jessica Hagedorn, Angelo Lacuesta, R. Zamora Linmark, Rosario Cruz-Lucero, Sabina Murray, Jonas Vitman, Marianne Villanueva, and Lysley Tenorio. Manila provides the ideal, torrid setting for an Akashic Noir series volume. It's where the rich rub shoulders with the poor, where five-star hotels coexist with informal settlements, where religious zeal coexists with superstition, and where politics is often synonymous with celebrity and corruption. From the Introduction by Jessica Hagedorn: Manila is not for the faint of heart. Built on water and reclaimed land, its an intense, congested, teeming megalopolis, the vital core of an urban network of sixteen cities and one municipality collectively known as Metro Manila. Population: over ten million and growing by the minute. Climate: tropical. Which means hot, humid, prone to torrential monsoon rains of biblical proportions. I think of Manila as the ultimate femme fatale. Complicated and mysterious, with a tainted, painful past. Shes been invaded, plundered, raped, and pillaged, colonized for four hundred years by Spain and fifty years by the US, bombed and pretty much decimated by Japanese and American forces during an epic, month-long battle in 1945. Yet somehow, and with no thanks to the corrupt politicians, the crime syndicates, and the indifferent rich who rule the roost, Manila bounces back. The peoples ability to endure, adapt, and forgive never ceases to amaze, whether its about rebuilding from the latest round of catastrophic flooding, or rebuilding from the ashes of a horrific world war, or the ashes of the brutal, twenty-year dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos . . . Many years have passed since the end of the Marcos dictatorship. People are free to write and say what they want, yet nothing is different. The poor are still poor, the rich are still rich, and overseas workers toil in faraway places like Saudi Arabia, Israel, Germany, and Finland. Glaring inequities are a source of dark humor to many Filipinos, but reallyjust another day in the life . . . Writers from the Americas and Europe are known for a certain style of noir fiction, but the rest of the world approaches the crime story from a culturally unique perspective. In Manila Noir we find that the genre is flexible enough to incorporate flamboyant emotion and the supernatural, along with the usual elements noir fans have come to expect: moody atmospherics, terse dialogue, sudden violence, mordant humor, a fatalist vision. “Travel, history, and a little bit of lore... Transports you to the Philippines and is filled with riveting and sometimes dark stories of the capital city.” —Glamour For the perfect definition of noir, look no further than Manila. The city itself is like a femme fatale: sexy, complicated, and betrayed. From its fraught colonial history to its present-day incarnation of a teeming metropolis, it is a city of extremes: posh hotels and slums, religious zeal and superstitions, corrupt cops and heroic citizens. Capturing the essence of Manila, one of the wildest cities on the planet, this collection of noir includes stories by Lourd de Veyra, Gina Apostol, Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo, F.H. Batacan, Jose Dalisay, Eric Gamalinda, Jessica Hagedorn, Angelo R. Lacuesta, R. Zamora Linmark, Rosario Cruz-Lucero, Sabina Murray, Jonas Vitman, Marianne Villanueva, and Lysley Tenorio. “Manila practically defines [noir], as shown by the 14 selections in this excellent anthology... The Filipino take on noir includes a liberal dose of the gothic and supernatural, with disappearance and loss being constants.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “Suffice it to say that what the Noir series in general, and Manila Noir in particular, does so well is to create a 360-degree mosaic of a place... By including so many perspectives, from so many walks of life, Manila Noir makes Manila seem as vibrant, and dangerous, and exciting, and confounding as it really felt to live there.” —Lit Wrap “A collection of stories like Akashic's forthcoming Manila Noir is enough to set a crime-fiction addict's mouth watering.” —The New York Observer Part I. Us against them : Aviary -- Lysley Tenorio A human right -- Rosario Cruz-Lucero Satan has already bought U -- Lourd de Veyra Broken glass -- Sabina Murray After midnight -- Angelo R. Lacuesta -- Part II. Black pearl of the Orient : Trese: Thirteen stations -- Budjette Tan & Kajo Baldisimo Comforter of the afflicted -- F.H. Batacan The professor's wife -- Jose Dalisay Cariño Brutal -- R. Zamora Linmark The unintended -- Gina Apostol -- Part III. They live by night : Old money -- Jessica Hagedorn Desire -- Marianne Villanueva Darling, you can count on me -- Eric Gamalinda Norma from Norman -- Jonas Vitman. Manila provides the ideal, torrid setting for a Noir Series volume. Its where the rich rub shoulders with the poor, where five-star hotels coexist with squatter settlements, where religious zeal coexists with superstition, where hospitality might be another word for prostitution, where politics is often synonymous with celebrity and corruption