8 /10 1 Votes
Language English, Tagalog | 4/5 Goodreads Originally published 1947 Genre Fiction | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Characters Ricardo Suerte, Nestong, Juan Suerte, Don Diego, Lucia, Crisostomo, Luis, Rosing Countries Philippines, United States of America Similar The laughter of my father, The Woman Who Had, A Child of Sorrow, The Hand of the Enemy, Prose and poems | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Without seeing the dawn
The title of Stevan Javellana's only novel in English Without Seeing the Dawn was derived from one of José Rizal's character in the Spanish-language novel Noli Me Tangere or Touch Me Not. Javellana's 368-paged book has two parts, namely Day and Night. The first part, Day, narrates the story of a pre-war barrio and its people in the Panay Island particularly in Iloilo. The second part, Night, begins with the start of World War II in both the U.S. and the Philippines, and retells the story of the resistance movement against the occupying Japanese military forces of the barrio people first seen in Day. It narrates the people's "grim experiences" during the war.
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First published in 1947, Javellana's novel sold 125,000 copies in the U.S. and was reprinted in paperback edition in Manila by Alemar's-Phoenix in 1976. The same novel was made into a film by the Filipino film maker and director, Lino Brocka under the title Santiago!, which starred the Filipino actor and later presidential candidate, Fernando Poe, Jr. and the Filipino actress, Hilda Koronel. It was also made into a mini-series film for Philippine television. The published novel received praises from the New York Times, New York Sun and Chicago Sun. Without Seeing the Dawn, the novel, became the culmination of Javellana's short-story writing career. The said novel was also known under the title The Lost Ones. It is currently a book requirement of the Grade 7 students of the University of the Philippines Rural High School.