Sionil José was born in 1924 in Pangasinan province and attended the public school in his hometown. He attended the University of Santo Tomas after World War II and in 1949, started his career in writing.

Since then, his fiction has been published internationally and translated into several languages including his native Ilokano.

He has been involved with international cultural organizations, notably International P.E.N., the world association of poets, playwrights, essayists and novelists whose Philippines Center he founded in 1958.

Mass is the story of the illegitimate son of Antonio Samson, the major protagonist in Sionil José’s novel, The Pretenders. Now grown-up, Pepe Samson escapes from his village of Cabugawan to live in Manila’s sprawling slum-Tondo.

Mass is the story of his journey from one swampland to another; it is also the story of thousands of young Filipinos who have finally found meaning in their lives.

But more than a story of discovery, it is an affirmation of faith in the future as envisioned by the dedicated Filipino youth today.

Written in Paris in 1976, it appeared first in translation in 1982 in Holland where it became a best seller.

Mass is also the last, in terms of chronology, of the author’s five Rosales novels.

Solidaridad Publishing House.

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