# The Woman Who Had Two Navels and Tales of the Tropical Gothic

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/nick-joaquin/the-woman-who-had-two-navels-and-tales-of-the-tropical-gothic/9780143130710

![The Woman Who Had Two Navels and Tales of the Tropical Gothic](https://quivercdn.com/covers/penguin-classics/nick-joaquin/the-woman-who-had-two-navels-and-tales-of-the-tropical-gothic_978-01-4313-071-0.jpg?v=2026-04-24%2009%3A08%3A32)

- Book: [The Woman Who Had Two Navels and Tales of the Tropical Gothic](https://www.bookquiver.com/nick-joaquin/the-woman-who-had-two-navels-and-tales-of-the-tropical-gothic) ([The Woman Who Had Two Navels and Tales of the Tropical Gothic.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/nick-joaquin/the-woman-who-had-two-navels-and-tales-of-the-tropical-gothic.md))
- Authors: [Nick Joaquin](https://www.bookquiver.com/nick-joaquin)
- Publisher: penguin_classics
- ISBN: 978-01-4313-071-0
- Pages: 448
- Published: 2017-06-29
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Softcover

## Description

Nick Joaquin is widely considered one of the greatest Filipino writers, but he has remained little-known outside his home country despite writing in English. With the post-colonial sensibilities of Junot Diaz, Teju Cole, and Jhumpa Lahiri and an ironic perspective of colonial history resonant with Marques and Llosa, Joaquin is a long-neglected writer ready to join the ranks of the world classics. His work meditates on the questions and challenges of the Filipino individual's new freedom after a long history of colonialism, exploring folklore, centuries-old Catholic rites, the Spanish colonial past, magical realism, and baroque splendour and excess. This collection features his best-known story, 'The Woman Who Had Two Navels,' centred on Philippine emigrants living in Hong Kong and later expanded into a novel, the much-anthologised story 'May Day Eve,' and a canonical play, A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino.