The Human Zoo - by Sabina Murray (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A blistering new novel that follows a Filipino American journalist's return to dictatorship-ruled Manila to research her book on tribes from a "cracklingly original" (Elle) and "singular" (New York Times Book Review) author, PEN Faulkner award-winner, Sabina Murray.

Filipino-American Christina "Ting" Klein has just travelled from New York to Manila, both to escape her imminent divorce, and 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. Arriving unannounced at her aging Aunt's aristocratic home, Ting quickly falls into upper class Manila life--family gatherings at her cousin's compound; spending time with her best friend Inchoy, a gay socialist professor of philosophy; and a flirtation with her ex-boyfriend Chet, a wealthy businessman with questionable ties to the regime. All the while, family duty dictates that Ting be responsible for Laird, a cousin's fiancé, who has come from the States to rediscover his roots.

As days pass, Ting witnesses modern Filipino society languishing under Gumboc's terrifying reign. To make her way, she must balance the aristocratic traditions of her extended family, seemingly at odds with both situation and circumstance, as well temper her stance towards a regime her loved ones are struggling to survive. Yet Ting cannot extricate herself from the increasingly repressive regime, and soon finds herself personally confronted by the horrifying realities of Gumboc's power.

At once a propulsive look at contemporary Filipino politics and the history that impacted the country, The Human Zoo is a thrilling and provocative story from one of our most celebrated and important writers of literary fiction.

Review Quotes

Praise for The Human Zoo:

"The Human Zoo unfolds like the best of stories--one compelling detail following the next until an entire world emerges, full of revelations and aching truths. Murray has given us a powerful page-turner full of wry humor and shattering wisdom about love, family, the meaning of home, and history. This novel pulses with that most difficult of urgent truths: running away only leads us back to ourselves but that might be exactly what saves us in the end." --Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King, shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize

"Domestic drama or international crisis, or both? For families, like Christina Klein's, it is always both. The Human Zoo begins with Klein's frank, gimlet-eyed assessments of her family and friends, in a Philippines controlled by a Duterte-like president, but what emerges effortlessly out of this is a spectacle of her family of aristocrats brought low by the populists they believe they control, and a vision of the Philippines but also of America, the two countries now more alike than ever before. One of the most interesting novels I've read in years, Murray is at the height of her powers, offering us a breathtaking, funny, terrifying oracle." --Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel

"Narratively speaking, Sabina Murray is always up to something. In her new novel The Human Zoo, a harrowing tour of steamy, decadent Manila, she combines an unflinching gaze at moral complexity with humor so dark it will make you anxious about yourself for appreciating it. Murray may well be the most fearless and gloriously subversive novelist we have." --Valerie Martin, author of Property

About the Author

SABINA MURRAY grew up in Australia and the Philippines and is currently a member of the MFA faculty at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is the author of Valiant Gentlemen, Tales of the New World, A Carnivore's Inquiry, Forgery, Slow Burn, and The Caprices, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.