Gathered in this book are stories that bear witness to half a century of postwar life in the Philippines: A country doctor reckons with mortality after seeing a dying infant. A young boy fears the end of days on his way home from the movies. Friends throw parties to discuss dictatorships and insurgencies over bottles of whiskey. Meanwhile, a family besieged by rising floodwaters faces a more menacing threat.
Gregorio C. Brillantes, often labeled as a “Catholic writer,” went beyond this calling and explored the possibilities of realist fiction, producing stories that Nick Joaquin considered as “Literature with a capital L” and are increasingly aware of their political milieu—the Marcos regime, the social unrest, and the vacillations of the middle class. Pensive and philosophical, at times funny and parodic, his work attests not only to a mastery of the short story but also, in the hands of a genius, to the capaciousness of the form.
Edited and with notes by Jonathan Chua, The Collected Stories of Gregorio C. Brillantes reintroduces the author in a time of repeated history.
Published in 2023.