Yñiga
Philippines

Yñiga

by Glenn Diaz

Summary

Yñiga Calinauan leads a quiet, unremarkable life in Manila until a retired army general accused of murdering peasants and political activists is arrested across the street from her home. Days later, her neighbourhood is burned to the ground, in what some suspect is retaliation. Forced to flee, Yñiga returns to M—, the small fishing town where she grew up, hoping to recover the peaceful existence she has lost. But the violence she thought she had escaped follows her, drawing her into a history of political repression and family trauma that she can no longer ignore.

As the boundaries between her past and present begin to collapse, Yñiga must confront the legacy of her activist father, who disappeared years earlier, and the unresolved wounds that continue to shape her family. Blending political thriller, dark humour, and literary fiction, Glenn Diaz’s novel examines the enduring consequences of state violence in the Philippines. Against a landscape haunted by disappearances and historical injustice, it explores the possibility of resistance—not only through dramatic acts of rebellion, but also through the determination to remember, endure, and refuse silence.

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Glenn Diaz
Glenn Diaz

Glenn Diaz is a Filipino novelist and academic born and raised in Manila. He holds a PhD in creative writing from the University of Adelaide and teaches in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of the Philippines Diliman. His writing has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Johannesburg Review of Books, and Liminal. Diaz is the author of The Quiet Ones (2017), his debut novel, which won the Philippine National Book Award, and Yñiga (2022), which also received the award. His other work includes When the World Ended I Was Thinking about the Forest (2022). His fiction frequently explores political violence, historical memory, social inequality, and the complicated relationship between individuals and the nation. Through incisive political observation and inventive storytelling, Diaz examines how the past continues to shape contemporary Filipino life.

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Published
2022
Author
Glenn Diaz