Reading both Marga Ortigas’ books is a lesson on the myriad of ways truth can be told, whether thinly disguised as fiction, or in outright non-fiction.

Marga Ortigas has two books out by Penguin Random House SEA, and this reader’s reactions couldn’t have been more different to them both.

I had to force myself to finish “The House on Calle Sombra: A Parable,” but flipped through “There Are No Falling Stars in China and Other Life Lessons from a Recovering Journalist” in a matter of an hour (spent over a memorable salad).

A big part of why it took me more than a week to get through Calle Sombra was its subject matter. Don’t be fooled by that (admittedly gorgeous) cover that had me thinking I was in for a lovely family epic a la “Gone With The Wind” (but set in Manila.)

This is heavy-hitting storytelling of the past hundred years of Filipino history, with the many historic characters cleverly disguised with different names (but are so easy to spot by Filipino readers).

The language was engaging and easy enough to understand, as Marga Ortigas is thankfully a writer who believes in communicating her thoughts as efficiently as possible, to as many people of diverse educational backgrounds as possible. So language wasn’t a factor in why it took me so long to read the book.

It was the subject matter itself. The stench of moral corruption, the vitriol and the violence, the pain and the paltry present to show for all that suffering is something difficult for this Filipina reader to slog through, because it hits too close to home. Heck, this IS home. Every page of this book is so familiar, it could have been about my family (minus the incredible wealth). And it is most definitely about my country, my city.

Interestingly enough, Marga Ortigas considers this book to be a love story to the Philippines.

Upon further reflection, perhaps this is the love of a truth-teller who does not shirk from telling the unalloyed truth to her beloved, in the hopes that it brings about improvement. For when all is praise and flattery, there can be no growth.

There Are No Falling Stars in China, in contrast, is a collection of non-fiction essays based on the author’s incredible decades as a journalist for CNN and Al Jazeera.

You’d think that, with her experience covering wars and disasters all over the world, perhaps this book would be heavy.

But Marga Ortigas has the gift of writing about weighty topics with a light touch. And this by no means implies that she’s a featherweight. Rather, it means that she writes with a heart (and a pen) of hope, and it makes her prose soar.

Behind all the ugliness of this world, beneath all the sorrow, Marga Ortigas chooses to focus her lens on the ties that unite Israeli and Palestinian, Christian and Moslem. She speaks of a shared humanity, of comrades-in-arms instead of foreign devils, and writes of her experiences in other countries that all the more make her realize what it means to be a Filipina.

Thankfully, both copies are now in our school library’s possession, waiting for our older high school students’ eyes and minds.

The truth is one, a Hindu saying goes, but sages know it by many names. Similarly, the truth of our country’s story can be told in many ways, as Marga Ortigas shows, but whether you’ll love it or hate it, one needs to read them both. And whether you strongly admire or detest it, you’ll still emerge wiser and better from the experience.

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~Written by Gabriela Francisco

(Gabi Francisco (@teacher.gabi.reads)

[The reviewer bought Marga Ortigas’ THERE ARE NO FALLING STARS IN CHINA AND OTHER LIFE LESSONS FROM A RECOVERING JOURNALIST from Fully Booked for P995.00, while THE HOUSE ON CALLE SOMBRA: A PARABLE was given by a friend. It retails in Fully Booked as well for P1,347.00 .

National Bookstore sells FALLING STARS for the same price, while CALLE SOMBRA retails for P1,125.00 with them.]