![—New York Journal of Books on <em>Smaller and Smaller Circles</em>](https://sohopress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/blog-00.png)
Gut wrenchingly real . . . Batacan has used her powerful first novel as a vehicle not just to entertain, but also to enlighten a wider audience to the poverty and injustice the people from the notorious Payatas district outside Manila suffer.
Gut wrenchingly real . . . Batacan has used her powerful first novel as a vehicle not just to entertain, but also to enlighten a wider audience to the poverty and injustice the people from the notorious Payatas district outside Manila suffer.