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Ratings: ★★★★★ (5/5)
Genre: Fiction / Literary Fiction / Mystery / Drama / Historical Fiction

Book Review:
''Ilustrado'' by Miguel Syjuco is a dazzling and virtuosic adventure that won the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2008. It begins with a body. One anonymous winter day, the corpse of Crispin Salvador is pulled from the Hudson River. Gone is the controversial giant of Asian literature, and missing is the only manuscript of his final book—an exposé of the corrupt roots of the ruling Filipino families.

His student, Miguel, is suspicious of the suicide verdict. He investigates, first sifting through the dead man's work for clues, then journeying from New York to Manila, seeking out family, colleagues, and anyone who might hold pieces of the puzzle. As patterns emerge, the mystery of a death deepens into the greater mysteries of life.

Syjuco's novel is a seethingly ambitious debut that expands into far wider contexts—political, social, historical, and literary. Bristling with comic verse, metafictional playfulness, and an undertone of expatriate nostalgia, this is a book that obliges us to remake the canons of our great classics of contemporary literature. If you enjoy literary fiction, mystery, or books about the power of storytelling, Ilustrado is a masterpiece. Highly recommended!