Released in 1961, The Woman Who Had Navels is Filipino author Nick Joaquin's most celebrated novella, a surrealistic exploration of expatriates and classism following the Philippine Revolution. It was initially released as a stand-alone text, but it has since been collected in The Woman Who Had Two Navels and Tales of the Tropical Gothic. This collection includes ten short stories and novellas, which use magical realism to wrestle with topics such as the conflict between Christianity and native religions, class struggles, and gender roles.
These novellas and stories include "May Day Eve," one of the author's first great works, and his famed late-period piece "Cándido's Apocolypse."...