Wings of Stone

This is a provocative novel about a Filipino who, on the eve of the recent revolution, returns home after living in the United States for 13 years. Ty-Casper, author of Awaiting Trespass, traces the man's inner thoughts as he gropes for meaning in a land pervaded by corruption and incongruities of nightmarish proportions and where the violence of the dying regime is a principle of life. For Johnny Manalo, the Philippines are familiar yet strange, and rather than being galvanized into activism he suffers from self-admitted political impotence. Dreaming of flight and freedom, he finds that he merely has wings of stone. The narrative ends with the destruction of a squatter camp in a terrifying conflagration, an occurrence that poses a question about the future of the Philippines: will life and rebirth emerge from the chaos and flames? (November)