“An original, raw, and wild novel that has held its power and demands to be read.” —Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer

Finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction and Winner of the American Book Award

A classic and influential story—often considered “the quintessential Filipino American novel” (The Nation)—centered on the cultural and political stakes of life in Marcos-era Philippines

One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

Welcome to Manila in the turbulent period of the Philippines’ late dictator. It is a world in which American pop culture and local Filipino tradition mix flamboyantly, and gossip, storytelling, and extravagant behavior thrive.

A wildly disparate group of characters—including movie stars and waiters, a young junkie and the richest man in the Philippines—becomes ensnared in a spiral of events culminating in a beauty pageant, a film festival, and an assassination. At the center of this maelstrom is Rio, a feisty schoolgirl who will grow up to live in America and look back with longing on the land of her youth.
DogeatersPart One: Coconut Palace

Love Letters
The King of Coconuts
The White Bouquet
Mister Heartbreak
Jungle Chronicle
His Mother, the Whore
Floating Bodies
Serenade
Tsismis
Sprikitik
Her Eminent Ascent into Heaven
President William McKinley Addresses a Delegation of Methodist Churchmen, 1898
Heroin
Her Mother, Rita Hayworth
High Society
Surrender
Avila Arrested in Human Rights Rally Dispute
Sleeping Beauty
One Christmas in a Mountain Lodge up in Baguio, Date Unknown
Epiphany
Breaking Spells
In the Artist's House
Excerpt from the Only Letter Ever Written by Clarita Avila
Jungle Chronicle

Part Two: The Song of Bullets

The President's Wife Has a Dream
Man with a Mission
Romeo Rosales
Paradise
The Weeping Bride
Last Chance
Dateline Manila
Movie Star
Golf
Insect Bounty
Hunger
Redemption
Jungle Chronicle
The Famine of Dreams
Bananas and the Republic
Terrain
Luna Moth
Pucha Gonzaga

Kundiman

  • WINNER
    Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award
© David Shankbone
Jessica Hagedorn is the author of the novels Dogeaters and The Gangster of Love, Dream Jungle, and a collection of poetry and short fiction, Danger and Beauty. View titles by Jessica Hagedorn

About

“An original, raw, and wild novel that has held its power and demands to be read.” —Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer

Finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction and Winner of the American Book Award

A classic and influential story—often considered “the quintessential Filipino American novel” (The Nation)—centered on the cultural and political stakes of life in Marcos-era Philippines

One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

Welcome to Manila in the turbulent period of the Philippines’ late dictator. It is a world in which American pop culture and local Filipino tradition mix flamboyantly, and gossip, storytelling, and extravagant behavior thrive.

A wildly disparate group of characters—including movie stars and waiters, a young junkie and the richest man in the Philippines—becomes ensnared in a spiral of events culminating in a beauty pageant, a film festival, and an assassination. At the center of this maelstrom is Rio, a feisty schoolgirl who will grow up to live in America and look back with longing on the land of her youth.

Table of Contents

DogeatersPart One: Coconut Palace

Love Letters
The King of Coconuts
The White Bouquet
Mister Heartbreak
Jungle Chronicle
His Mother, the Whore
Floating Bodies
Serenade
Tsismis
Sprikitik
Her Eminent Ascent into Heaven
President William McKinley Addresses a Delegation of Methodist Churchmen, 1898
Heroin
Her Mother, Rita Hayworth
High Society
Surrender
Avila Arrested in Human Rights Rally Dispute
Sleeping Beauty
One Christmas in a Mountain Lodge up in Baguio, Date Unknown
Epiphany
Breaking Spells
In the Artist's House
Excerpt from the Only Letter Ever Written by Clarita Avila
Jungle Chronicle

Part Two: The Song of Bullets

The President's Wife Has a Dream
Man with a Mission
Romeo Rosales
Paradise
The Weeping Bride
Last Chance
Dateline Manila
Movie Star
Golf
Insect Bounty
Hunger
Redemption
Jungle Chronicle
The Famine of Dreams
Bananas and the Republic
Terrain
Luna Moth
Pucha Gonzaga

Kundiman

Awards

  • WINNER
    Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award

Author

© David Shankbone
Jessica Hagedorn is the author of the novels Dogeaters and The Gangster of Love, Dream Jungle, and a collection of poetry and short fiction, Danger and Beauty. View titles by Jessica Hagedorn