Laut Stories (The Philippine Writers Series 2022)

The rational and the impossible thrive together in the tales that Sigrid Gayangos weaves in Laut: Stories, a book that is as important for its setting and philosophy as for its exquisite writing. Laut buoys us into the interstices of city and seaside to witness the interactions and migrations of land lovers and sea dwellers alike. With masterful restraint that few storytellers her age possess, Gayangos documents encounters with magic that can neither be calculated nor tamed, with forces that exist gloriously in the physicality of water, but also always just outside the limits of human knowledge. There is no greater gift to the reader than these startling glimpses into a life-giving world we too often take for granted. —Anna Felicia Sanchez, Pics or It Didn’t Happen and Actual Stories Sigrid Marianne Gayangos’s debut collection of speculative fiction showcases the interplay of imagination and political consciousness—and in that fertile space, Laut: Stories offers both delight and provo