And just like that, we wrapped up the fourth month of 2025. How time flies! April has been quite “heated” here in the Philippines. The summer has been in full swing and the heat has been very oppressive. Nevertheless, I hope everyone is somewhere comfortable. Anyway, how is the year so far? I hope it is brimming with positive changes, growth, development, life-changing lessons, and blessings. If it is going the other way, I hope the coming months will provide positive changes and a reversal of fortune. I hope 2025 will go everyone’s way and everyone’s wishes and prayers will be answered. But before I could wave goodbye to April, let me share the book titles I acquired during the month. Interestingly, I managed to limit my purchase during the month. It has been my goal to read more and buy less and April 2025 is sure a pleasant surprise. I guess I was putting the reins on my wallet. Anyway, here are the books I obtained in March.

Title: Banaag at Sikat (Radiance and Sunrise)
Author: Lope K. Santos
Translator (From Tagalog): Danton Remoto
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Publishing Date: 2021 (1906)
No. of Pages: 373

Synopsis: 

Lope K. Santos’ novel, Banaag at Sikat, is a love story framed as a political tale. Published in 1906, it was later hailed as Asia’s first proletariat novel. It revolves around Delfin, a poor man in love with Meni, a capitalist’s daughter.

Delfin is a socialist while Felipe, his friend, is an anarchist. Delfin wants the citizens to have more rights in business and property relations. He believes that society could be changed through education. On the other hand, Felipe believes in tearing down society’s walls. Factories should be owned by those who work there and land owned by those who till it. Banaag at Sikat mirrors the clash of forces during the American empire in the Philippines. Its burning passages on race, class, and colonialism still resonate today. Translated by ‘one of Asia’s best writers’, it is hoped that this modern rendering will inspire new readers to shape their lives so they ‘can help change the world.’

Title: The Mysterious Disappearance of the Marquise of Loria
Author: José Donoso
Translator (from Spanish): Megan McDowell
Publisher: New Directions
Publishing Date: 2025 (1980)
No. of Pages: 112

Synopsis: 

All of a sudden, Blanca Arias has it all. The nineteen-year-old daughter of a middling Nicaraguan diplomat posted to Madrid, she marries the equally young and passionate Marquess of Loria, heir to one of the largest fortunes in Spain. He then, as if on cue, dies of diphtheria, leaving Blanca single, free, and inconceivably rich.

A parodic paean to the literary erotica of 1920s Mardid, this luxurious and disturbing work details the sexual adventures of the marquise as her white-gloved chauffeur shuttles her from tryst to tryst. But it’s not all champagne and roses: Blanca’s mother-in-law, Casilda, is scheming with her gang of disinherited sycophants to take back “their” fortune. And once the mysterious Luna, a Weimaraner pup, infiltrates Blanca’s chambers, the story shapeshifts from an elegy to a glittering bygone era into something more savage: a psychological thriller and a profound investigation – what exactly hides beneath those surfaces that the rich are so busy gilding and polishing?

Elegantly translated into English for the first time by Megan McDowell and with an exciting introduction by the incomparable Gabriela Wiener, The Mysterious Disappearance of the Marquise of Loria is as exuberant as it is explicit. Irresistible!

Title: Theft
Author: Abdulrazak Gurnah
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publishing Date: 2025
No. of Pages: 246

Synopsis: 

What are we given, and what do we have to take for ourselves?

It is the 1990s. Growing up in Zanzibar, three very different young people – Karim, Fauzia and Badar – are coming of age, and dreaming of great possibilities in their young nation. But for Badar, an uneducated servant boy who has never known his parents, it seems as if all doors are closed.

Brought into a lowly position in a great house in Dar es Salaam, Badar finds the first true home of his life – and the friendship of Karim, the young man of the house. Even when a shattering false accusation sees Badar sent away, Karim and Fauzia refuse to turn away from their friend.

But as the three of them take their first steps in love, infatuation, work and parenthood, their bond is tested – and Karim is tempted into a betrayal that will change all of their lives forever.