“An original, raw, and wild novel that has held its power and demands to be read.” 
—Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer 

Finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction and Winner of the American Book Award

Welcome to Manila in the turbulent period of the Philippines’ late dictator. It is a world in which American pop culture and local Filipino tradition mix flamboyantly, and gossip, storytelling, and extravagant behavior thrive.

A wildly disparate group of characters—from movie stars to waiters, from a young junkie to the richest man in the Philippines—becomes caught up in a spiral of events culminating in a beauty pageant, a film festival, and an assassination. In the center of this maelstrom is Rio, a feisty schoolgirl who will grow up to live in America and look back with longing on the land of her youth.