The Infinite Library and Other Stories

Book excerpt: A commanding force for Southeast Asian speculative fiction, THE INFINITE LIBRARY AND OTHER STORIES reimagines the pasts, presents, and futures of Filipinos and the world around them. This first North American edition features a never-before-anthologized story. "Fantastic and lyrical, like glimpses into the infinite potential of the universe."-Ken Liu, author of THE PAPER MENAGERIE AND OTHER STORIES Shortlisted for the 2018 International Rubery Book Award. Making his North American debut, Victor Fernando R. Ocampo in The Infinite Library and Other Stories shows why Southeast Asian speculative fiction is a force to be reckoned with. From a mysteriously timeless interior of a map shop to a space elevator thousands of miles away from the metropole, these 18 stories masterfully straddle manifold layers of Filipino history, identity, and mythology, reconstructing the past and conjuring new futures for the nation and region at large. Ocampo's transnational consciousness brilliantly navigates class, colonialism, and gender in formal experimentations of winning ingenuity. Threaded by the motif of libraries and books, this deliciously enigmatic and labyrinthine collection showcases the infinite power of imagination to mend and make anew.