Available Light: The Life of Ela Cruz by Norma Miraflor

Norma Miraflor’s second novel is the “unauthorized biography” of one Ela Cruz, told in interlocking parts – her childhood, adolescence, marriage, motherhood, illness, and death. Besides memories and reflections, the novel also contains the protagonist’s stories, columns, recipes, letters, photograph captions, a “stitching together” of “the swatches of her life.” The author has a philosophy degree from UST’s Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, was an editor of the Varsitarian, an instructor and a journalist in Manila before moving to Singapore in the early ‘70s. Together with her husband, she ran Media Masters, a Singapore-based publishing company.