Ilustrado
The narrator of this fractured novel, Miguel, travels to the Philippines in search of the missing manuscript of his mentor’s life, arriving to a country on the verge of revolution. He wants to know why the famous novelist was killed and what was contained in the voluminous manuscript on which he had been working. The manuscript is meant to expose the corrupt ruling classes and Crispin’s role over the years in attempting to bring them down through the means of novels and journalism, as well as outright insurrection.
The life of Miguel’s mentor is reconstructed through the lens of his work — his fictional forays, his autobiography and assorted notes. The narrator himself is constructing his own present through emails, letters and recollections of his time spent growing up with his grandparents in Vancouver, Canada. They were exiled at a time fraught with the troubles of a previous revolution, in which his parents were killed on a plane crash.
