Edgar Calabia Samar. Sa Kasunod ng 909. Manila: University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2012. 254 pages.

• Main Author: Tayco, Joshua Mikhail M.
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2015
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/paha/vol5/iss2/13; https://archium.ateneo.edu/context/paha/article/1166/viewcontent/PAHA_205.2_2013_20Book_20reviews_20__20Tayco.pdf
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

Excerpt: The blurb of Edgar Calabia Samar’s Sa Kasunod ng 909 promises a mystery-thriller with a coating of fantasy. The novel does not fail in being exactly that. What the blurb does not prepare its readers for is how the novel is plotted. The story runs on two tracks involving two characters in two timelines. It opens with Eman, the protagonist, learning about the death of his friend Aaron. When Eman is shown the body, he is unconvinced that it is Aaron’s. The odd-numbered chapters center on Eman’s quest to solve the mystery of his friend’s whereabouts. With reason to believe that Aaron is alive, he goes on a journey filled with stories about prostitutes, supernatural creatures, and writers—the usual subjects that Aaron writes about. The even numbered chapters concern Norman, a member of a traveling circus, whose father, Antonio, has mysteriously disappeared. Though Kasunod might baffle readers at first, the interplay of the two perspectives creates a well calculated complexity that is one of the charms of the novel.