In steamy, corruption-ridden Manila, at the height of Ferdinand Marcos' brutal regime, 2 unlikely young lovers come together: Rue Caldwell, the wife of an American counter-insurgency specialist & Doming Aquinaldo, a Filipino dissident working under a secret identity as chauffeur for Rue's husband. Doming is honor-bound to avenge his father's murder, but resists fighting brutality with more violence, choosing instead to be a conduit for information. Rue, who avoids acknowledging the suffering that is veiled by her privileged lifestyle, represents all that Doming despises. As the violence in the country escalates, Rue & Doming find refuge in each other through their loneliness, their awakening conscience and their common experience of betrayal and exile. Doming soon abandons his role as informant embarking on a perilous journey to his rural home in search of a "disappeared" sister as Rue's life becomes more deeply intertwined with the Marcos regime. When an insurgent bomb attack goes horribly awry, government reprisals take the lives of dozens of innocent Filipinos as well as an American journalist who was trying to expose corruption, Doming, realizing that Rue and her husband are at risk of becoming "collateral damage," is now compelled to make a difficult choice or else find the narrow way between his love for Rue, his duty to his country & the wisdom of his heart.
"Orth vividly evokes the Manila of that era, from the beggars to the superstitious prophecies that substitute for hope, with such sensory details as the sound of a ripe mango hitting the ground and the bitter tang of rice wine vinegar on a piece of tanguigi (e.g., a whitefish). A judicious peppering of Tagalog lends further authenticity."
Publishers Weekly
"This impressive first novel not only re-creates the sights, sounds, and smells of Manila during the late 1980s, it also captures the dignity of those who were long oppressed but never cowed."
