Gina Apostol’s debut novel was first published in her native Philippines in 1997 and won the Philippine National Book Award. Apostol, who lives in the United States, was given the opportunity to add a new introduction to the book, which is now available in the US for the first time.

Set largely in 1986 during the leadup to a populist revolution that led to the end of the Marcos regime, BIBLIOLEPSY now feels like truly historical fiction. But as Apostol points out in her new introduction, “I changed nothing much in this edition of BIBLIOLEPSY, though I wish I could have…in the sense that --- I wish that the country truly had moved on, become the state of democracy and justice that our banners then wished it to be.” The book, which is largely about how democracy is both desirable and fragile, is as relevant as ever in 2022.

"The prose...is still fresh and at times very funny...and the novel is also a love letter to reading and readers that will resonate at any time..."

BIBLIOLEPSY might be about revolution, but it is deeply introspective and inward-looking. In most ways, it is as much about a young woman developing her sense of herself as it is about a country moving toward political change. For Apostol’s protagonist, Primi Peregrino, that process of self-discovery is largely focused on sex…and reading. Primi is a self-described “bibliolept,” someone who is in love with books and, by extension, their authors. However, her youthful forays into relationships with actual authors often leave her far less satisfied than reading books by long-dead writers.
 
Primi has a complicated relationship with her older sister Anna, who may have some kind of spiritual power and eventually plays a key role in the political revolt. Their parents die when the girls are quite young, leaving them largely unsupervised (but very well supported) by various relatives, especially their grandmother. Much of Primi’s journey to adulthood is shaped by continually revisiting her relationship with Anna, as well as her feelings of grief around their parents’ loss.
 
The political underpinnings of BIBLIOLEPSY may still be relevant, but at times the book’s literary style shows its age, full of self-referential commentary and metafictional techniques in vogue in the late 20th century. The prose, though, is still fresh and at times very funny (the oblique ways in which Apostol describes various sex acts are particularly inventive and delightful), and the novel is also a love letter to reading and readers that will resonate at any time: “A bibliolept is burdened by all stories she reads, by other people’s poems in her head…. Writing is not her vocation. Writing is an irrational detour. The world needs more readers, not writers.”