1 The book swap will take place at an imaginary karaoke dive called Heaven, located in an abandoned, rotting mansion in the Malate section of Manila.
2 I plan to swap my first-edition hardcover copy of Manuel Puig’s Kiss of the Spider Woman, translated from the Spanish by Thomas Colchie and published in 1979.
3 This astonishing, groundbreaking, intricate, multilayered novel—composed of nothing but an extended dialogue between two men in a jail cell and footnotes sprinkled throughout—fucked me up in the best possible way when I first read it as a young writer. Doors flew open in my brain. Doors leading to other doors, worlds within worlds.
4 Did you know that Manuel Puig lived for a time in the West Village, on Bedford Street?
5 Why has Puig been forgotten?
6 May the recipient of this priceless gift get his/her mind beautifully fucked up, too.