TRAVELS (and more) WITH CECILIA BRAINARD: Book Review of CECILIA BRAINARD'S NOVEL, THE NEWSPAPER WIDOW by Angeles de Leon

Thursday, September 23, 2021

Book Review of CECILIA BRAINARD'S NOVEL, THE NEWSPAPER WIDOW by Angeles de Leon

BOOK REVIEW of The Newspaper Widow a Novel by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard
PALH 2021 & University of Santo Tomas Publishing House 2017
By ANGELES DE LEON
Starting out as a riveting murder mystery, it took me along as it branched, twisted & turned along the way, it deepened into the story of a friendship between 2 women, of differing personalities from different cultures (one a Frenchwoman, the other a Chinese-Spanish-Native hybrid) as they mourned their lost loves, and struggled to survive in the clash of the early 1900’s American Colonial Period.

The customs, costumes, society, and details of those times gone by, ring true; they evoke tales of my own grandma. The characters are recognizable- - reminiscent of some folks I have met in the Visayan society of my day. Ubec, (Cebu named backwards) a southern Philippine island, is painted with the atmosphere redolent of the tropical islands where I grew up.

This slim book is enjoyable & engrossing- - like time-traveling to a bygone time & place, sharing the life of interesting characters, transporting us away from our current stressful times.

I enjoyed this just as much as 2 novels i’ve read, recently: Where Crawdads Sing, a NYTimes Bestseller with nearly 200,000 reviews in Amazon Books, & The Firekeeper’s Daughter, a Time Best YA Book of All Time.

For copies of the book:
In the US check out Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others; in the Philippines check out Lazada and Shopee

tags: Philippine novels, Filipino novels, Filipino books, Filipino mystery, Filipino murder mystery, Philippine literature books, Filipino detective novels

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's official website is ceciliabrainarddotcom. She is the award-winning author and editor of 22 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Selected Stories, Vigan and Other Stories, and more. She edited Growing Up Filipino 1, 2, & 3, Fiction by Filipinos in America, Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, and other books.. Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized. Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She has served in the Board of literary arts groups such as PEN, PAWWA (Pacific Asian American Writers West), among others.