An unforgettable novel about sisterhood, familial duties and love

The Betrayed tells the story of two sisters who love the same man. As dictatorship and political upheaval ravage the Philippines, the sister's conflicting passions threaten to lead them to betray not only each other, but all that their father stood for.

Shy, idealistic Pilar initially resolves to carry on her father's fight against the regime, while her flamboyant older sister Lali reacts by marrying the enemy - Arturo, the dictator's godson. Each tries to find their place in this violent world, but can they withstand the corruption of politics and the relentless pull of their own desires?

Taking in the Philippines' troubled history from the Marcos dictatorship to the establishment of the present totalitarian regime, and expertly layering the many aspects of the human condition, The Betrayed is a complex and luminous novel.

About the Author
Reine Arcache Melvin is a Filipino-American author whose works focus on the Philippines and the lives of Filipinos both at home and abroad. Arcache Melvin's short-story collection A Normal Life and Other Stories won the Philipine National Book Award for Fiction in 1999. The Betrayed is her first novel.

Reviews
"THE BETRAYED is destined to be a literary classic, not just for readers in the Philippines but literary lovers worldwide. Its nuanced disquisition on the Filipino socio-political-economic elite-how many prove the adage 'Power corrupts'-become timeless observations and lessons on the general human condition. Melvin's elegant and sensual sentences also enhance reader empathy so that we end up caring about the characters even as we ultimately learn about ourselves. Yet it's not only timeless but timely. The Philippines' 2022 Presidential election highlight how the country is at an existential crossroads on whether its future development will progress or regress. But its reminder that suffering never ends only highlights the import of justice-how we must perpetually strive for its redemption." * Eileen Tabios, writer, poet, and visual artist *
"[Melvin's] beautiful, sensual, visceral writing shows us that the past is not really a foreign country, but our own country in an eternal loop." * Jessica Zafra, author of Twisted *
"Highly readable and enjoyable, it compellingly contains, in its confident tone and language, a powerful mosaic of images, characters, and relationships." * Angelo R. Lacuesta *
"If, as poet-exile Czeslaw Milosz said, 'language is the only homeland,' then Melvin's, The Betrayed is the soil we've been seeking-rich, elusive, yet ever-surging in our blood, bones, and breath. Told with the intimacy of a lover and with an historian's sweeping, clear-eyed vision, it is the story of moral survival under the weight of political upheaval and human frailty. At the heart of this novel is love-of family, of motherland. Love that breaks barriers, crosses continents, transcends time. Fluid, poetic, and lush, these pages navigate our deepest longings, fears, and the relentless search for that one true thing in a ruined world." * Angela Narciso Torres, author of What Happens is Neither and Blood Orange *
"In this story of contemporary Philippines, sisterhood is the indelible trope: Reine Arcache Melvin crafts the indiscreet harm of Manila's bourgeoisie through two sisters, Lali and Pilar, whose entangled acts of lust and survival never diminish what's true-their love for each other. Story is at the heart of Melvin's art. Like Adichie's Purple Hibiscus or Half of a Yellow Sun, Melvin's US debut novel, The Betrayed, imagines politics through the propulsive sweep of romance, mixing private infidelities and public disaster with a storyteller's verve." * Gina Apostol, author of Insurrecto *



Book Information
ISBN 9781787703896
Author Reine Arcache Melvin
Format Paperback
Page Count 464
Imprint Europa Editions (UK) Ltd
Publisher Europa Editions (UK) Ltd