MANILA // Dan Brown's description of Manila as "the gates of hell" in the American novelist's latest book has not gone down well with officials in the Philippine capital.
The book Inferno which is being sold in the Philippines, includes a character who is visiting the city and taken aback by poverty, crime and the sex trade.
The chairman of metropolitan Manila, Francis Tolentino, wrote an open letter to Brown today, saying that while Inferno is fiction, "we are greatly disappointed by your inaccurate portrayal of our beloved metropolis".
Mr Tolentino objects to the "gates of hell" description, and to Manila being defined by what he calls terrible descriptions of poverty and pollution.
He said the novel fails to acknowledge Filipinos good character and compassion.
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Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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