Japanese-American author and tapestry artist Leo Orii’s epic novel “Sampaguita and Gold Button” is now available at five branches of National Book Store in Metro Manila.
Takion Inc., the book’s publisher, said the English edition of Orii’s novel is available at National Book Store in Glorietta 1, Greenbelt, and Power Plant Mall-Rockwell, all in Makati; Uptown Place Mall and SM Aura in Pasig, both at BGC, Taguig.
One may also grab a copy at National Artist for Literature F. Sionil Jose’s Solidaridad bookshop on Padre Faura St. in Manila and at U Cafe and New Hatchin Trading Corp, both in Makati. Online orders may be made through Sampaguita and Gold Button’s official Facebook Page.
In the novel, Orii uses his detailed and highly visual mode of storytelling to weave a tale of first love and suffering in a Japanese-occupied Philippines during World War II, and how this love survived the brutal years of Martial Law under the Marcos dictatorship.
A tapestry-maker and painter, Orii melds his mastery of the visual arts to shape the narrative of his story of a romance between a Japanese sailor and a comely young woman from Cebu, juxtaposing the tenderness and innocence of their youthful passion against the fumes and flames of war.
Set in Cebu and Manila in the Philippines, and in Sendai and Tokyo in Japan, “Sampaguita and Gold Button” offers a very human, and very rare, look at the Japanese perspective of the grand story of the Great War. It also offers rare insights of the Martial Law years, as seen from the eyes of a Japanese man living in Manila.
