Gilbert Luis R. Centina Libri

When José Morán entered the monastery, it was to pursue the highest form of chivalry. But his fate as a religious priest takes a precipitous turn when social paroxysm grips the fictional island-nation of Islas e Islotes after the downfall of the government. To cover up his own misdeeds, his abominably corrupt religious superior leading a double life seizes the ensuing chaos and collaborates with human rights violators in the military to accuse the completely innocent friar of a fabricated heinous crime. The plot unravels as those who claim to follow Christ wade into politics, taking for granted his injunction to "render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's." In this novel, cassocked hypocrites are unmasked and only the weak are spared.

Prize-winning poet Gilbert Luis R. Centina III plumbs the depths of human despair and celebrates the triumph of the human spirit through this bilingual poetry collection. He uses the mosaic of cultures he has experienced in the rainforests of Peru, the sweltering tropical heat of the Philippines, the frenetic pace of Spanish Harlem in New York, and the Old World milieu of Spain as a backdrop in painting a panoramic view of humanity's inner struggle with life itself. What emerges is an affirmation that in the end, victory belongs to those who love and hope and remain steadfast in their faith in the goodness of humankind.

This book delves into the religious character, substance and symbolisms in Ricaredo Demetillo's poetry rather than into its form or structure. As a religious poet, Demetillo - one of the Philippines' most gifted poets - starts with a doubt. After leaving a Protestant seminary in favor of a career in literature, he writes poems that are 'rebellious' in the sense that they reject the kind of god that society and the institutionalized Church have imposed upon men.