Yñiga - by Glenn Diaz (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

One woman's reluctant trek through a forest of ghosts and the aftermath of empire in modern Philippine life.

Yñiga Calinauan leads an ordinary life in Manila--until the day a retired army general wanted for the murder of peasants is captured across the street from her house. Days later, her unassuming neighborhood is burned to the ground in what some whisper is retaliation. With nowhere else to go, she returns with beloved cat Jestoni to M--, the small fishing village of her childhood and her best chance at regaining the quiet life she lost. But the terror Yñiga thought she escaped in the city still stalks her, forcing her and Jestoni into the nearby forest of both trees and trauma that has long haunted her family. For Yñiga there is no escape, only resistance.

Inspired by the state-sponsored killings under Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Glenn Diaz uses keen political acumen and masterful storytelling to explore familial resistance and the devastating weight of its legacy.

Review Quotes

Praise for Yñiga

Winner of the 2024 Philippine National Book Award

"Between the interlocking scenes of beauty and horror runs a magic that only Diaz can create out of thin air, subtle in some places, maniacal in others. . . . A marvel of political storytelling." --2024 Philippine National Book Award Judges' Citation

"With lyrical yet profound narration, with characters who sometimes bear the weight of history, and with rare sensitivity, Diaz pulls us into a narrative current that appears calm on the surface but conceals dangerous whirlpools beneath." --Eka Kurniawan, author of Beauty is a Wound

"A visceral, unforgettable journey into one woman's fraught familial legacy of disappearance and resistance, as well as a deeply poignant meditation on nation-building itself." --Elaine Castillo, author of Moderation

"Glenn Diaz sees corruption and its paradoxes embedded in a cultural dynamic perpetually at play between power and survival. With great depth of vision and masterful prose, he puts us in touch not only with imported violence but with a local resistance heroically determined to better its condition." --Brian Castro, author of Chinese Postman

"Diaz's fierce and articulate intellect dazzles in his very evocative and at times funny but most deadpan and wry prose. He has captured the often absurd and peculiar life in the Philippines with a fond but critical eye." --The Asian Review of Books

About the Author

Glenn Diaz is the author of the novels The Quiet Ones (2017) and Yñiga (2022), both winners of the Philippine National Book Award; and When the World Ended I Was Thinking about the Forest (2022), published by Paper Trail Projects. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Rosa Mercedes, Liminal, The Johannesburg Review of Books, Splinter and others. Born and raised in Manila, he holds a PhD from the University of Adelaide and currently teaches with the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of the Philippines Diliman.