Ilustrado

Up until its change in rules last year, the Man Asian Literary Prize was unusual in that it celebrated novels not yet to be published in English. So it was that it has taken 2008's winner, Ilustrado by Filipino writer Miguel Syjuco two years for those outside the judging panel to assess its qualities. It has been worth the wait, however; Ilustrado is an extraordinary achievement and a worthy winner of any prize.

On a winter day in New York City, Crispin Salvador's dead body is fished from the Hudson River. A scion and controversial figure in Filipino literature, Salvador has been working for years on an expose of the Filipino ruling families - the manuscript of which is now missing. His student, Miguel, is impelled to investigate, scouring the life of his mentor, for patterns and stories that explain both his life and his death.

This is an epic novel, a saga of revolution, family, political upheaval, and personal redemption, told in an original, kaleidoscopic manner. Like Roberto Bolaño before him, Miguel Syjuco has created a literary landscape all his own.