ABOUT
Photo by Rennell Salumbre
MIGUEL SYJUCO is a Filipino author, journalist, civil society advocate, and professor at New York University Abu Dhabi. His debut novel, Ilustrado, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and won both the Man Asian Literary Prize and the Grand Prize at the Palanca Awards, his country’s top literary honor. His latest novel, I Was the President's Mistress!!, was published recently, in April 2022, by Farrar, Straus & Giroux and Penguin Random House Canada.
Syjuco has worked as a contributing opinion writer for The International New York Times, written for many of the world’s most respected publications, and spoken on Philippine politics and culture at the World Forum for Democracy and the World Economic Forum. He currently serves on the advisory councils of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, an international arts residency program, and the Resilience Fund, a project by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime to empower communities most threatened by criminality.
Praise for I WAS THE PRESIDENT'S MISTRESS!!
“This brilliant black comedy is a wild, and wildly unpredictable, ride through the dark side of the Philippines. Miguel Syjuco is his country’s most original and unflinching literary voice.”
— SALMAN RUSHDIE, author of Quichotte
“A tour de force—bawdy, fearless, insightful, delightful.”
— KAMILA SHAMSIE, author of Home Fire
“Nobody writes like Miguel Syjuco. A triumph.”
— ELIF BATUMAN, author of The Idiot
“An urgent book, and a necessary one: a Tyrants Destroyed for the twenty-first century.”
— TOM McCARTHY, author of The Making of Incarnation
"Virtuosic, kinetically funny Miguel Syjuco can riff on just about anything ... as he explores our era’s thorniest questions of class, gender, power, and violence. At the heart of this blistering satire is Vita Nova, a heroine for the ages, whose rise to fame and epic romantic odyssey stop the breath and stoke the conscience like nothing else I’ve ever read."
— MIA ALVAR, author of In the Country
"A super-typhoon of a novel. A Babel of rogues, survivors and shape-shifters. A polemic against corruption and greed. A sassy, swerving mini-series, touched by grace and beauty. A Filipino Bonfire of the Vanities for our beleaguered times. An uncompromising work of art."
— DAVID MITCHELL, author of Utopia Avenue
"Rambunctious, uninhibited satire ... Vivid ... Captivating ... Those willing to go along for a wild ride ought to be entertained by this tale of dirty tricks and dirty deeds."
— Publishers Weekly
“... has a headlong, assertive energy and a transgressive bent ... Syjuco’s most irreverent set pieces reveal how cultures can get a woman like Vita exactly backward—rather than the know-nothing sinner she’s dismissed as, she’s the scapegoat for everyone else’s greed and ineptitude ... Ingenious.”
— Kirkus Reviews
Praise for ILUSTRADO:
"With Ilustrado, Miguel Syjuco obliges us to remake the canons of our great classics of contemporary literature. Ilustrado is, literally, a masterpiece."
“A dazzling and virtuosic adventure in reading ... Syjuco is a writer already touched by greatness ... This is a remarkably impressive and utterly persuasive novel. Its author ... may one day succeed with the Nobel committee.”
“A dazzling and virtuosic adventure in reading ... Syjuco is a writer already touched by greatness ... This is a remarkably impressive and utterly persuasive novel. Its author ... may one day succeed with the Nobel committee.”
— ALBERTO MANGUEL, El Pais
“A dazzling and virtuosic adventure in reading ... Syjuco is a writer already touched by greatness ... This is a remarkably impressive and utterly persuasive novel. Its author ... may one day succeed with the Nobel committee.”
“A dazzling and virtuosic adventure in reading ... Syjuco is a writer already touched by greatness ... This is a remarkably impressive and utterly persuasive novel. Its author ... may one day succeed with the Nobel committee.”
“A dazzling and virtuosic adventure in reading ... Syjuco is a writer already touched by greatness ... This is a remarkably impressive and utterly persuasive novel. Its author ... may one day succeed with the Nobel committee.”
— JOSEPH O'CONNOR, The Guardian
“Wildly entertaining ... Engaging ... Absolutely assured in its tone, literary sophistication and satirical humor ... Syjuco is only on his mid-30s, and he already possesses the wand of the enchanter.”
“A dazzling and virtuosic adventure in reading ... Syjuco is a writer already touched by greatness ... This is a remarkably impressive and utterly persuasive novel. Its author ... may one day succeed with the Nobel committee.”
“Ambitious ... In a daring literary performance, Syjuco weaves the invented with the factual ... Ilustrado is being presented as a tracing of 150 years of Philippine history, but it's considerably more ... Spiced with surprises and leavened with uproariously funny moments, it is punctuated with serious philosophical musings.”
— MICHAEL DIRDA, The Washington Post
“Ambitious ... In a daring literary performance, Syjuco weaves the invented with the factual ... Ilustrado is being presented as a tracing of 150 years of Philippine history, but it's considerably more ... Spiced with surprises and leavened with uproariously funny moments, it is punctuated with serious philosophical musings.”
"An exceedingly complicated and ambitious work ... With an unflinching gaze, the novel inexorably, albeit sporadically, builds a most critical profile of Filipino elites ... Through virtuoso use of language and a dazzling array of fictional techniques, it achieves all of its lofty objectives. It deserves all the accolades it has won ... It is among the finest novels written by a Filipino. Perhaps, even by any writer."
“Ambitious ... In a daring literary performance, Syjuco weaves the invented with the factual ... Ilustrado is being presented as a tracing of 150 years of Philippine history, but it's considerably more ... Spiced with surprises and leavened with uproariously funny moments, it is punctuated with serious philosophical musings.”
— RAYMOND BONNER, The New York Times Book Review
"An exceedingly complicated and ambitious work ... With an unflinching gaze, the novel inexorably, albeit sporadically, builds a most critical profile of Filipino elites ... Through virtuoso use of language and a dazzling array of fictional techniques, it achieves all of its lofty objectives. It deserves all the accolades it has won ... It is among the finest novels written by a Filipino. Perhaps, even by any writer."
"An exceedingly complicated and ambitious work ... With an unflinching gaze, the novel inexorably, albeit sporadically, builds a most critical profile of Filipino elites ... Through virtuoso use of language and a dazzling array of fictional techniques, it achieves all of its lofty objectives. It deserves all the accolades it has won ... It is among the finest novels written by a Filipino. Perhaps, even by any writer."
"An exceedingly complicated and ambitious work ... With an unflinching gaze, the novel inexorably, albeit sporadically, builds a most critical profile of Filipino elites ... Through virtuoso use of language and a dazzling array of fictional techniques, it achieves all of its lofty objectives. It deserves all the accolades it has won ... It is among the finest novels written by a Filipino. Perhaps, even by any writer."
— ANTONIO HIDALGO, The Philippine Daily Inquirer
“An extraordinary debut, at once flashy and substantial, brightly charming and quietly resistant to its own wattage ... An exuberant, funny novel ... With this dazzling first foray, Syjuco suggests how his new Asia, his new identity, must ‘look' on the page and between the covers. That look is unexpected and fresh, quite unlike anything that has been seen before.”
"An exceedingly complicated and ambitious work ... With an unflinching gaze, the novel inexorably, albeit sporadically, builds a most critical profile of Filipino elites ... Through virtuoso use of language and a dazzling array of fictional techniques, it achieves all of its lofty objectives. It deserves all the accolades it has won ... It is among the finest novels written by a Filipino. Perhaps, even by any writer."
"An exceedingly complicated and ambitious work ... With an unflinching gaze, the novel inexorably, albeit sporadically, builds a most critical profile of Filipino elites ... Through virtuoso use of language and a dazzling array of fictional techniques, it achieves all of its lofty objectives. It deserves all the accolades it has won ... It is among the finest novels written by a Filipino. Perhaps, even by any writer."
— CHARLES FORAN, The Globe and Mail
“An exuberant, complex, and fascinating ride through 150 years of Philippine history ... Syjuco's writing is playful, smart, and confident ... An inventive and exciting debut.”
“Confident and quirky, with passages that recall early Phillip Roth and a structure not unlike the best M. Night Shyamalan films, the book actively seeks to provoke its audience . . . bookended by passages of profundity that somehow manage to always say something about life as well as literature.”
“Confident and quirky, with passages that recall early Phillip Roth and a structure not unlike the best M. Night Shyamalan films, the book actively seeks to provoke its audience . . . bookended by passages of profundity that somehow manage to always say something about life as well as literature.”
— GRACE TALUSAN, Rumpus
“Confident and quirky, with passages that recall early Phillip Roth and a structure not unlike the best M. Night Shyamalan films, the book actively seeks to provoke its audience . . . bookended by passages of profundity that somehow manage to always say something about life as well as literature.”
“Confident and quirky, with passages that recall early Phillip Roth and a structure not unlike the best M. Night Shyamalan films, the book actively seeks to provoke its audience . . . bookended by passages of profundity that somehow manage to always say something about life as well as literature.”
“Confident and quirky, with passages that recall early Phillip Roth and a structure not unlike the best M. Night Shyamalan films, the book actively seeks to provoke its audience . . . bookended by passages of profundity that somehow manage to always say something about life as well as literature.”
— ROBERTO ONTIVEROS, The Dallas Morning News
“Syjuco's exceptional novel exceeds its heightened expectations, serving notice that a brilliant new talent has arrived, somehow fully formed.”
“Confident and quirky, with passages that recall early Phillip Roth and a structure not unlike the best M. Night Shyamalan films, the book actively seeks to provoke its audience . . . bookended by passages of profundity that somehow manage to always say something about life as well as literature.”
“Dazzling ... It is a virtuoso display of imagination and wisdom, particularly remarkable from a 31-year-old author; a literary landmark for the Philippines and beyond.”
— JARED BLAND, The Walrus
“Dazzling ... It is a virtuoso display of imagination and wisdom, particularly remarkable from a 31-year-old author; a literary landmark for the Philippines and beyond.”
“Through his vivid use of language, Syjuco has crafted a beautiful work of historical fiction that's part mystery and part sociopolitical commentary. Readers who enjoyed Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao will enjoy this literary gem.”
“Dazzling ... It is a virtuoso display of imagination and wisdom, particularly remarkable from a 31-year-old author; a literary landmark for the Philippines and beyond.”
— MICHELE LEBER, Booklist (starred review)
“An ambitious debut novel, winner of the Man Asian Literary Prize, introduces an author of limitless promise ... It dazzles as brightly as Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything Is Illuminated ... First novels rarely show such reach and depth.”
“Through his vivid use of language, Syjuco has crafted a beautiful work of historical fiction that's part mystery and part sociopolitical commentary. Readers who enjoyed Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao will enjoy this literary gem.”
“Through his vivid use of language, Syjuco has crafted a beautiful work of historical fiction that's part mystery and part sociopolitical commentary. Readers who enjoyed Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao will enjoy this literary gem.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Through his vivid use of language, Syjuco has crafted a beautiful work of historical fiction that's part mystery and part sociopolitical commentary. Readers who enjoyed Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao will enjoy this literary gem.”
“Through his vivid use of language, Syjuco has crafted a beautiful work of historical fiction that's part mystery and part sociopolitical commentary. Readers who enjoyed Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao will enjoy this literary gem.”
“Through his vivid use of language, Syjuco has crafted a beautiful work of historical fiction that's part mystery and part sociopolitical commentary. Readers who enjoyed Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao will enjoy this literary gem.”
— Library Journal (starred review)
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