Smaller and Smaller Circles
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- 20,99 €
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- 20,99 €
Publisher Description
This harrowing mystery, winner of the Philippine National Book Award, follows two Catholic priests on the hunt through Manila for a brutal serial killer Payatas, a 50-acre dump northeast of Manila's Quezon City, is home to thousands of people who live off of what they can scavenge there. It is one of the poorest neighborhoods in a city whose law enforcement is already stretched thin, devoid of forensic resources and rife with corruption. So when the eviscerated bodies of preteen boys begin to appear in the dump heaps, there is no one to seek justice on their behalf. In the rainy summer of 1997, two Jesuit priests take the matter of protecting their flock into their own hands. Father Gus Saenz is a respected forensic anthropologist, one of the few in the Philippines, and has been tapped by the Director of the National Bureau of Investigations as a backup for police efforts. Together with his protege, Father Jerome Lucero, a psychologist, Saenz dedicates himself to tracking down the monster preying on these impoverished boys. Smaller and Smaller Circles, widely regarded as the first Filipino crime novel, is a poetic masterpiece of literary noir, a sensitive depiction of a time and place, and a fascinating story about the Catholic Church and its place in its devotees' lives
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Opening with the gruesome discovery of a child’s body, this thriller—which some consider to be the Philippines’ first crime novel—doesn’t pull any punches. The story revolves around two Jesuit priests, Saenz and Lucero, who are scrambling to stop a killer preying on young boys in a Manila shantytown while also struggling to hold the Catholic Church accountable for harboring pedophiles. F.H. Batacan leaves a tantalizing string of clues as he pulls us deeper and deeper into the mystery and the dark underbelly of a bustling Asian metropolis. Actor Ramón De Ocampo narrates with a stern authority that perfectly matches the book’s dark tone and gives voice to characters with a rhythmic flair. If you’re looking for a gripping crime story, hit play on Smaller and Smaller Circles.