State of Happiness A Novel
Country: Philippines
Author Name: Clarissa V. Militante
Publisner Name: University of the Philippines (UP) Press
Original Language: English
The story revolves around appearing and disappearing islands mirroring the disappearance of persons and relationships; it is about the different forms or manifestations of love in the time of natural and human-made (socially, politically instigated) tragedies.
In Part 1, a blooming intimate friendship of two young people was cut short by a natural disaster that caused an island to almost disappear; Part 2 tells the stories of people affected by the disaster, those who continue to walk in the ruins and thus whose sanity were questioned by the current government who see their madness as threat to society; in Part 3, time catches with the novel’s protagonists as their past lives are revealed.