Sanpaku

An ominous condition known as Sanpaku plagues the waking life of young Marcine.

Marcine is fascinated with the Japanese idea of Sanpaku. It says that seeing the white around the iris of your eyes is a bad omen. But it’s everywhere Marcine looks—her grandmother has it, some classmates at Catholic school have it, JFK had it . . . even Marcine might suffer from this odd condition. Eating a strict macrobiotic diet and meditating is supposed to help, but no matter how much Marcine wants it to, it can’t save her grandmother, or bring back pop star Selena, or make her life at school any easier.

From cartoonist Kate Gavino (Last Night’s Reading), Sanpaku gives voice to the insecurities that abound in teens of all cultures, while exploring this Japanese theory through her own Catholic, Filipino background.