Ashura - by Quintin Jose V Pastrana Paperback

Book Synopsis

In a country riven by death and corruption, unlikely companions risk everything to find a little girl whose secret could expose murderers hiding in plain sight.

Ashura is the story of three lives, intertwined by fate and circumstance, speaking truth to power amid the escalating tide of extrajudicial killings in modern-day Philippines.

Spanning three continents, seven cities, and twelve months, the novel weaves a powerful narrative of interrupted youth, shared identity amid brazen politics, and the elusive search for justice. It traces the invisible threads of kinship that grow stronger as its characters navigate the fragile line between life and death, history and love.

The reader is drawn into separate inner journeys that converge on the bloodstained streets of Metro Manila and Mindanao, the shifting corridors of power in Washington, DC, and the dark recesses of Barcelona--culminating in an uncertain reckoning at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Ultimately, Ashura becomes a shared, unfinished legacy of a nation still struggling to define itself.

Review Quotes

"Ashura: A Filipino Reckoning is a deeply moving debut that deftly evokes horrific moments in a country under a ruler who blindly used violence in a war on drugs, unleashing a river of tears. Ashura is a story about darkness and light, grief and remembrance, written in clear and compelling prose. What makes it heartwarming is that, amidst the terror that has become ordinary, kindness finds its way, surfaces, and shines."
--Marites D. Vitug

"A novel that fizzes with ideas and characters, ranging across continents. Pastrana holds the worlds deftly, weaving a tale that is complex, transparent, and riveting all at once. The portrait of people taking on the darkness that underlies a nation corrupt proposes that there is reason for hope."
--Amal Chatterjee

"Quintin, in Ashura, has again excellently blended and positioned his picturesque narration of events, persons, and places within his main characters' own personalities: the advocacy and uncertainty, the ambivalence from fear to courage, strength, and hope. Even the other characters, though unnamed, enhance the verisimilar quality of the story. Ashura, from the very beginning up to the end, is riveting."
--Melencio Sta. Maria, Jr.

"Quintin's book captures the spiritual legacy of heroic resistance by examining the intersecting lives of multiple protagonists through an inimitably expansive, multi-cultural, and world-spanning prism. By weaving together a lifetime of multidisciplinary knowledge and cosmopolitan experiences, the author provides a magisterial portrait of arguably one of the most misunderstood nations in history. It's an elegiac poem on the recurring tragedies, short-lived triumphs, and undying aspirations of Filipino people for justice and freedom."
--Richard Heydarian

"In a work that weaves a complex narrative, spread across three continents, the reader is given rich insight into academia at Cambridge, the Philippine Drug War, the lives of cosmopolitan elites, the workings of international courts, and the experiences of refugees and immigrants in the United States of America. Pastrana's debut cuts deep and captures an era of violence with the panoramic eye of one who has truly seen. Ashura is a challenging work, which probes the ability of humanity to overcome physical and mental fragility, and to meet the untamed horrors of a fractured world with clear-sighted action."
--Alexandra Strnad

"Ashura by Quintin Jose Pastrana is a fever dream of a novel. Set in the Philippines, England, and parts beyond, this novel crosses countries, concerns, and cultures as it moves heedlessly toward its target, like a heat-seeking missile. This is a vivid, well-written page turner, tinged with the politics of blood and the blood of politics."
--Danton Remoto

"Ashura is not one of those books. This story does not speak from above. It speaks from within--from the places we bury memory and the wounds we don't always name. Pastrana does not look away. His writing is careful but raw, lyrical but unsparing. What he has written is not just a novel--it is a reckoning."
--Jamela Aisha Alindogan

About the Author

Quintin Jose V. Pastrana is an energy entrepreneur, library builder, and writer. He holds degrees in Business, International Relations, and Creative Writing from Georgetown University, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Oxford. His works include Ambahan: A Love Story (2021), a compendium of indigenous verse poetry; Infieles: 12 Filipino Stories (2023), a short fiction collection; and The Kitten Who Lost Her Purr (2024), a young adult book.

Quintin is currently President of WEnergy Power Pilipinas and Archipelago Renewables Corporation, a leader in renewables and hybrid energy microgrids, and is an Asia Society, US ASEAN Business Council, and Lannan Poetry Fellow. He is the Founder of the award-winning Library Renewal Partnership, and Asociacion Vuelta, a social enterprise for migrant communities in Spain.