Last September, we reported that Penguin Classics, an imprint that focuses on important members of the Western canon, will be publishing Nick Joaquin’s novel The Woman Who Had Two Navels and Tales of the Tropical Gothic. Well, we’re happy to report that the book will be out on April 18, in time for Joaquin’s 100 birth anniversary in May!
It will be the author’s first US publication, and will feature a paperback version and an ebook. Both will have a foreword by writer Gina Apostol and an introduction by historian Vicente L. Rafael.
Joaquin will be the third Filipino to be published under Penguin Classics, following National Hero Jose Rizal and poet Jose Garcia Villa.
Elda Rotor, the Filipina editorial director of Penguin Classics, told CNN Philippines, “For Nick Joaquin, his reputation and legacy spoke for themselves.”
Meanwhile, Penguin’s website said, “His work meditates on the questions and challenges of the Filipino individual’s new freedom after centuries of colonialism, exploring folklore, centuries-old Catholic rites, the Spanish colonial past, magical realism, and baroque splendor and excess.”
Penguin Classics is under the Penguin Group, one of the leading publishers in the world. Joaquin will join novelists like Mark Twain, Lewis Carroll, Robert Louis Stevenson, Charles Dickens, Franz Kafka, and many more.
To date, the Penguin edition of The Woman Who Had Two Navels and Tales of the Tropical Gothic is available for pre-order at the Penguin website for $18 (paperback) and $11 (ebook).
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