Author:  Mario I. Miclat

The book is a deluxe edition of an autobiographical novel, now designed in coffee table form.  The author is Mario I. Miclat, a multi-awarded poet, novelist, essayist, translator and academic. He served as dean of the University of the Philippines Asian Center and retired as UP full professor and Associate of Likhaan UP Institute of Creative Writing.   It is a collaborative publication of Erehwon Artworld Corporation and the Maningning Miclat Art Foundation.

In 1971, a group of young Filipino activists fled to China, with Mario and his wife Alma among them. They stayed in exile for 15 years, cared for by the Chinese government, working at Radio Peking.  It was during this exile that Mario wrote “Secrets of the Eighteen Mansions,” a novel about which National Artist F. Sionil Jose had written, “… adroitly weaves Chinese history and events into the plot of the novel, giving it historical context and contemporaneity – a master stroke worthy of great writer.”  It is an extraordinary story of underground Filipino expatriates in China during the turbulent years of the Cultural Revolution

In 2009, the book was longlisted for The Man Asian Literary Prize, an annual literary award between given to the best novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English.  It has been hailed by several National Artists for Literature, writers and critics.

It includes an introduction written by National Artist Virgilio Almario, who describes it as “one of the most creative histories of the rise and fall of the Maoist movement in the Philippines.”  It consists of 326 pages, size 9 inches x 12 inches, with never before seen photos by Mario himself and creative works by his daughter, Maningning Miclat.

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