La Oveja de Nathan/Nathans Sheep

The Filipino People’s anguished striving for self-determination throbs in Antonio Abad’s novel, La Oveja de Nathan (Nathan’s Sheep), published in 1928 by the Editorial La Opinion in Calle Juan Luna. The novel underscores America’s promise to grant the Philippines its independence at the opportune time. Abad wrote this novel when historical events narrated in it were flux. This accounts for his intimacy with the temper and events of the times and the intensity with which convictions are expressed, most notably in the obviously symbolic title, around which the author recreates historical events and reorganizes them to serve his central thesis in novelistic detail.