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Sabina Murray and Dariel Suarez - Families and Dictators
- 426 reads
Dariel Suarez’s book, The Playwright’s House, tells the story of a happily married, successful young Cuban attorney whose estranged brother Victor appears with news that their father—famed theater director Felipe Blanco—has been detained for what he suspects are political reasons, Serguey’s privileged life is suddenly shaken. A return to his childhood home in Havana’s decaying suburbs—a place filled with art, politics, and the remnants of a dissolving family—reconnects Serguey with his troubled past.
In Sabina Murray’s book, The Human Zoo, Filipino-American Christina “Ting” Klein has just travelled from New York to Manila to begin research for a biography of Timicheg, an indigenous Filipino brought to America at the start of 20th century to be exhibited as part of a "human zoo." It has been a year since Ting’s last visit, and one year since Procopio “Copo” Gumboc swept the elections in an upset and took power as president. As days pass, Ting witnesses modern Filipino society languishing under Gumboc’s terrifying reign. Ting cannot extricate herself from the increasingly repressive regime, and soon finds herself personally confronted by the horrifying realities of Gumboc’s power.
