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Islands of Forgotten Daughters

Meeting the Matriarchs of Filipino Myth

Carla Montemayor

$36.99

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English
Chatto & Windus
24 November 2026
A gorgeous feat of storytelling that fuses myth and memoir to retell the jaw-dropping matriarchal myths of the Philippines to a general readership for the first time; a genuinely new contribution to the highly popular retellings market

Meet the matriarchs of Filipino myth - defiant goddesses, powerful witches, terrifying shapeshifters - and their real-life counterparts, as Carla Montemayor journeys to discover her own ancestry and the stories of her people.

When Carla Montemayor discovers that her great-great grandmother was a binukot - a girl sequestered from her family and community, trained to memorise and sing the myths of her people - this sets her on her own epic journey to uncover her ancestry. Why was she raised on European fairytales and Greek myths when the stories of her own people are so rich? And why did no one in her family speak of their illustrious binukot foremother anymore?

Travelling to the Philippines to trace the lives of her female relatives, Carla discovers that, officially, her people have no history. Like many indigenous groups, their stories have been erased by colonists. It becomes her work to reconstruct and reimagine them.

Weaving together the tales of her family members, who survived war, oppression, violence, displacement and more, with the myths of her people, Carla finds similarities- women with courage, resourcefulness and ambition, who fight and love with equal ferocity.

Islands of Forgotten Daughters celebrates these women and tells their tales, offering a fresh perspective on Filipino history and culture. It is a rallying cry for the power of storytelling- to resist erasure, preserve identity and resonate for generations to come.
By:  
Imprint:   Chatto & Windus
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 204mm,  Width: 132mm,  Spine: 25mm
Weight:   500g
ISBN:   9781784745622
ISBN 10:   1784745626
Pages:   224
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General/trade ,  ELT Advanced ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming

Carla Montemayor is a writer originally from the Philippines, now based in London. She won a London Writers Award for narrative nonfiction in 2021 and was a fellow on the London Library Emerging Writers Programme 2022-23. Her writing has been shortlisted for Spread the Word's Life Writing Award (2020), and the Specimen Press competition To Speak England in Different Languages (2021). She has contributed work to acclaimed food writing anthology London Feeds Itself (2022), and her essay 'The Shapeshifters' in Hinterland Magazine was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021.

Reviews for Islands of Forgotten Daughters: Meeting the Matriarchs of Filipino Myth

I so enjoyed Islands of Forgotten Daughters. It is utterly enthralling -- as vivid and moving in its tracing of a family’s past as it is in its retelling of traditional tales. Montemayer entwines time, place, memory, and myth to enchanting effect, and it left me longing to know the women of my own family all the more -- JESSICA J. LEE, author of Two Trees Make A Forest Lush, magnetic, elegiac and absorbing, Islands of Forgotten Daughters tells the stories of women missing from traditional archives but alive in the pens of brilliant storytellers. Carla Montemayor is a writer of tremendous talent -- MEGHA MOHAN, author of Herlands Skilfully crafted and beguilingly immersive, Islands of Forgotten Daughters pays tribute to the women and the parables that keep our histories alive in the face of repeated erasures by imperial and patriarchal structures -- SANTANU BHATTACHARYA, author of Deviants In Islands of Forgotten Daughters, Carla Montemayor unearths the hidden history of the binukot, transforming a personal search for ancestors into a powerful reclamation of Filipino identity. An important and tender act of recovery -- ROMALYN ANTE, author of The Left-Behind Child I loved Carla Montemayor’s fearless uncovering of this powerful family story... Having inherited the family’s storytelling skill, Carla Montemayor’s validation of the central matriarchal role, played throughout succeeding generations of a fading heritage, is a gift not only to those who preceded her but to every reader of this beautiful book -- JULIET NICOLSON, author of Frostquake Like the delicate pina cloth her foremothers expertly wove, Carla intertwines her own modern story with myth, history and family archive. A beautiful tale of diaspora, love and loss. Reading it felt like a trip to the lands so vividly brought to life by the author -- MIRIAM GOLD, author of Elena: A Handmade Life Carla Montemayor journeys deep into her family's secret story that demands remembering. Her voice is beautiful, powerful and unforgettable -- CANDY GOURLAY, author of Wild Song


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