PORTRAIT OF A MIXED RACE FAMILY GRAPPLING WITH IDENTITY AND BETRAYAL IN A TURBULENT TROPICAL ISLAND NATION

The House on Calle Sombra follows the fates and fortunes of the esteemed Castillo de Montijo family over three generations. Set in the Philippines-a tropical island nation where truth blends with fiction-none of the Castillos is quite as perceived. Successful patriarch Don Federico arrived from Spain a penniless orphan. Formidable matriarch Dona Fatimah is a native Muslim fugitive. And their brood of privileged descendants is struggling to live up to their famed and crested motto- FAMILY FIRST. Mirroring events in the country’s turbulent history, the Castillos’ perfect fa ade begins to fracture as shadows from their past return to claim their due. Sardonic, witty, and brutally frank, The House on Calle Sombra is an ode to family, and a compelling exploration of how greed, love, and trauma are passed down through generations.

‘Eye of a journalist, prose of a poet, an exotic tale delicately weaving a nation’s history with a family’s unravelling. A rags-to-riches parable, in an unfamiliar and evocatively recalled landscape, festooning the reader in garlands of uncanny self-realisation.’
-Nic Robertson, International Diplomatic Editor, CNN

‘Marga Ortigas has written a stellar, soaring, gut-crunching multi-generational tale that is certain to set on edge the teeth of Manila’s great and good. Like the tunnels in the book, this will take you into a world behind the curtain, revealing the universal truths concealed behind jewels, privilege and power.’
-Sheila Macvicar, Emmy, Peabody and duPont Award-winning international journalist

Ortigas is as well-measured as she is compelling in depicting the Castillos’ ‘original sin’ as she seamlessly navigates the conceits and schemes of the Filipino elite across the time span of three generations.
-Javier Sicilia, Award-winning Mexican poet, novelist, and social activist, founder of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity against the crime and violence of Mexico’s drug war