Angela Shupe
Waterbrook (Penguin Random House Christian Publishing) 2025
384 pages, $18.00
Michigan-based novelist Angela Shupe’s debut work, “In the Light of the Sun,” can be seen as a testament to the power of art and music to lighten even the most extreme anguish and hardship.
Scheduled for release in October 2025, the book tells the story of two sisters who despite being worlds apart, use their musical gifts to overcome.
The story unfolds in a rural village of Floridablanco in the Pampanga province of the Philippines, and in Florence, Italy. The book highlights the struggles of Italian-Filipino “mestisas” (half-bloods) living in Italy during the Mussolini era.
In counterpoint, the novel outlines a middle-class Filipino family’s struggle to survive in the wake of Imperial Japan’s military occupation of the nation between 1941-1945.
“In the Light of the Sun” explores war, xenophobia and the power of the arts
Older sister Rosa Grassi has moved to Florence to be with her beloved grandmother Nonna, and to undergo voice training in preparation for a career in opera. Nonna is a former world-class soprano who has chosen to remain in Italy in retirement.
Meanwhile, younger sister Caramina is at home in the Philippines with dreams of following in her older sister’s footsteps as a prima donna on the international stages of the opera world.
As Rosa struggles with Fascist Italy’s oppression of mixed-blood immigrants, Caramina and the rest of her family are forced to flee the family home to escape the menace of Japanese soldiers solidifying their hold on a subjugated people.
The narrative shifts back and forth from the perspectives of the two sisters. Rosa for instance, hints at the unease of outsiders in times of nationalistic fervor and xenophobia. “Some people treat me differently because I’m mestiza, a half-blood,” Rosa reveals. “They call me ugly names, like bangus (whitefish) and asong kalye (mongrel). I try not to pay attention, but the sting of their words burns.”
In the Philippines meanwhile, Caramina comes to terms with some harsh new realities. “Something has shifted inside me. Something has come to life. I can feel it — all of it — the pain, the agony of the war, the fear, and the loss. But there is something else. I dredge the depths of my heart with each step. Music is still with me, alive inside me.”
Author’s family history influences story
“In the Light of the Sun” is a fictionalized but moving account of author Shupe’s compelling family story.
“One of my mother’s older sisters left the Philippines in the late 1930s to voice train with their grandmother, a former soprano with two Italian travelling opera companies,” Shupe told OSV News. “This was also a dream of my mom’s. Rosa’s story in the book is inspired by this aunt’s experiences. It was common for aspiring opera singers to voice train under a former opera singer or at a conservatory. Italy, under Mussolini and during the war, wasn’t a friendly place for foreigners in general, and this was the case in the music world.”
For an emerging author, Shupe has done a superb job creating the atmosphere of dread and uncertainty for vulnerable people in times of war and social upheaval. There is also a strong sense of historical authenticity in the book’s treatment of the underground resistance movements both in Fascist Italy and the Philippines under Japanese occupation.
As circumstances worsen in Florence and Floridablanco region, the two sister-heroines struggle to sustain their parents’ and grandparents’ stoic resolve to look for the good in every situation — no matter how trying and demoralizing they may be.
The book emphasizes the power of the arts — in this case music — to provide a sense of beauty, peace and relief for anguished consciences. It also raises the notion of art’s universal appeal and the dangers inherent in totalitarian states’ efforts to exploit music’s emotional power for propagandistic purposes.
Subtle Catholic influence in “In the Light of the Sun”
Although the Catholic influence in this story is subtle, there is a clear emphasis on the reliance on faith to deal with earthly suffering and to sustain one’s hopes for salvation.
As Rosa and Carmelina’s father Arturo explains late in the narrative, “When times are most difficult, that’s when we need to hold on to the good things — simple things that bring joy, laughter, a dripping mango, the sun blazing golden peach and magenta, and music. These are blessings to hold dear.”
Arturo Grassi, we come to learn, is a World War I veteran and an organizer with the Filipino resistance, who despite the loss of his wife and the scattering of his family, refuses to give up his hopes for better things. The father’s heroic optimism sustains both Rosa and Carmelina whose respective hardships threaten their surrender to hopelessness and despair.
As with the best of historical fiction, “In the Light of the Sun” entertains the reader and provides insights into near forgotten elements of history. While these insights aren’t one hundred percent factual, they inspire readers to reflect on how things might have been for people who lived through these times.
“It has been my experience, even from when I was young, that most people in the U.S. are unaware of what happened to the Filipino people during the war, or that there even was a war in the Philippines,” Shupe said. “I wanted to bring this to light so that more people would be aware of what transpired during the war in the Philippines, as it was life-altering for the Filipino people.”
Some of the dialogue in the novel comes across as saccharine and naïve, and there is perhaps one too many marriages made in heaven as the story comes to an end. Nonetheless this debut novel satisfies almost all of the storyteller’s objectives: entertaining the reader while inviting him or her to experience vicariously the struggles and resolve of people from long ago and far away.
Michael Mastromatteo is a writer, editor and book reviewer from Toronto.
The post Novel highlights power of art and music as a salve to troubled humanity first appeared on OSV News.
