Additional Book Information
Series: NYRB Lit
ISBN: 9781590177501
Pages: 200
Publication Date: May 20, 2014
Sweet Haven
by Lakambini Sitoy
From a brilliant new talent, comes a sharp and sensual novel set in a decaying and unromanticized Philippines. In the little city of Donostia, bad news travels fast. So when 16-year-old Naia is found in an illicit pornography video, the tight-knit community is outraged. They want answers. The finger of blame soon points to Narita, Naia’s absentee mother, for putting career ahead of duty. Now Narita is back from Manila and must face her past and the memories of a life she fled. In search of the answers to her daughter’s scandal, she follows a trail of evidence to reveal a web of family secrets, corruption, prejudice and the barriers of social class.
At its heart, Sweet Haven is a story of a family buffeted by an ailing and intransigent nation, of the simple and bitter ways by which a family falls apart, and the brave leaps they can take to put themselves back together. Sharp-witted, keenly observant, with a passion for the rich tragic-comedy of life, Lakambini Sitoy takes on the everyday complacencies that can shatter a life—or save it.