The Betrayed

(Paperback)

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Description

The Betrayed tells the story of two sisters who love the same man. As dictatorship and political upheaval ravage the Philippines, the sister's conflicting passions threaten to lead them to betray not only each other, but all that their father stood for.

Shy, idealistic Pilar initially resolves to carry on her father's fight against the regime, while her flamboyant older sister Lali reacts by marrying the enemy - Arturo, the dictator's godson. Each tries to find their place in this violent world, but can they withstand the corruption of politics and the relentless pull of their own desires

Taking in the Philippines' troubled history from the Marcos dictatorship to the establishment of the present totalitarian regime, and expertly layering the many aspects of the human condition, The Betrayed is a complex and luminous novel.

Reviews

'[Melvin's] beautiful, sensual, visceral writing shows us that the past is not really a foreign country, but our own country in an eternal loop.' - Jessica Zafra, author of Twisted

'Highly readable and enjoyable, it compellingly contains, in its confident tone and language, a powerful mosaic of images, characters, and relationships.' - Angelo R. Lacuesta

Author Bio

Reine Arcache Melvin is a Filipino-American authorwhose works focus on the Philippines and the lives of Filipinosboth at home and abroad. Arcache Melvin's short-storycollection A Normal Life and Other Stories won the NationalBook Award for Fiction in 1999. The Betrayed is herfirst novel.