The House on Calle Sombra follows the fates and fortunes of the esteemed Castillo de Montijo family over three generations. Set in the Philippines – a tropical island nation where truth blends with fiction – none of the Castillos is quite as perceived. Successful patriarch Don Federico arrived from Spain a penniless orphan. Formidable matriarch Doña Fatimah is a native Muslim fugitive. And their brood of privileged descendants is struggling to live up to their famed and crested motto: FAMILY FIRST.
Mirroring events in the country’s turbulent history, the Castillos’ perfect façade begins to fracture as shadows from their past return to claim their due.
Sardonic, witty, and brutally frank, The House on Calle Sombra is an ode to family, and a compelling exploration of how greed, love, and trauma are passed down through generations.
Archives: Books
The Macanese Pro-Wrestler’s Cookbook
Macau, that redolent, overcrowded hive of faded Portuguese culture, glossy American casinos, and overarching Mainland governance is what hapless, lovelorn Zeke Oliveira calls home. An eccentric himself, for the most part he’s at ease with the city’s eccentricities, but when his best friend is murdered Zeke goes on a search for those responsible, a search that takes him into an undercurrent of crime beneath the city that he never knew existed. An adventure, a social commentary and an unconventional cookbook, The Macanese Pro-Wrestler’s Cookbook is ultimately the portrait of a man struggling to find a balance between the cultural identity he has inherited and his own individual destiny.
Silence in the Land of Gold
Molly Durberville and George Wilford, foreign lawyers working in the country, are assigned to untangle the legal issues surrounding a plane crash. They are led to a struggle between the Burmese military and the Kachin Independence Army. Ultimately, they realize that the origin of the crash has been from within their law firm. Though Molly has been assigned to spy on George, through their adventures they become lovers. George is torn by his realization, however, that Molly is attracted to Zaw Dan, a general in the Kachin army. One facet of the novel examines the legal profession from the perspectives of two women lawyers-Molly and Khine San Myo, who is housebound because of her history and that of the country.
A Dead Body Never Lies
Words and actions can mean a thousand things in any mortality case, but only the body can provide the truth to decipher the cause of death. Dr Rohayu, a forensic pathologist, knows she has a duty to the dead and lives by the statement, ‘a dead body never lies’. She has taken the unsaid oath to be the voice of and safeguard the ones who are not able to tell their story. With Malaysia’s diverse melting pot of race, culture, and religion, Dr Rohayu has been through a plethora of extraordinary scenarios. Despite the social stigmas and taboos that come into play, Dr Rohayu is committed to seek justice and provide closure. A food enthusiast with an infectious bubbly demeanor, Dr Rohayu never fails to bring a little flare into her field of work. With the help of her co-author Fatin, they have transformed her work into a compelling piece of art for the world to see and understand.
No doubt in Dr Rohayu and Fatin’s mind, every single person deserves to be heard, the right to love, and freedom to be their true self. With a combination of science and empathy, they have created a unique piece of writing. Step into Dr Rohayu’s shoes as she brings you through these ten cases, which she believes will serve as a beacon of hope to the people who feel their voices are not worthy enough to be heard.
Accelerating Women
The greatest source of innovation in any organisation is its people, and one of the highest contributors to achieving sustained performance comes from Accelerating Women. This means leaders need to be committed to a sustained change to support, coach, mentor, listen and sponsor women every day. This is #1 issue holding organisations back from greater success in their business. Society is 50% women, yet it’s rare to find organisations with even 30% participation in management. So you’re missing 30% of the talent pool!!!
So, this book is about tools, approaches and real experiences to help you, as a manager/leader to create a workplace that Women want to join and contribute to. It will help you attract talented women and retain them, helping your team grow and innovate.
The book is split into 4 key parts:
Self – what you can personally do to support change
Leaders – what do you need to do with the leaders
Organisation – what can you do to sustain a broader change
Community – what can you do to facilitate a change in the community
This is written for business leaders with real stories that make it easy to understand what to change. The book is designed to help every manager and leader to change the way they operate, especially men in leadership roles on how to lead differently and make a real difference on gender diversity. Accelerating Women, is a journey without a finish line but is the most rewarding investment you will ever make.
Fate
Hong Kong, 1969. The Dragon Head of the Fanling Triad has died and there is a struggle to replace him among senior members of the gang. Normally, the Deputy Mountain Master is next in line, but this one is weak and ineffectual and has only survived because of the protection of the Dragon Head. Up to this point, the Fanling Triad has operated in relative isolation from neighbouring gangs, but the Dragon Head’s death has drawn attention to the area – and to its wealth. Other gangs start to make threatening moves and it’s obvious to the senior members of the Fanling Triad that they need a leader who can fend off the threats, unite the membership, and maintain their prosperity. There are several candidates. The least conspicuous is the White Paper Fan, their young administrator. His name is Chow Tung, but many of those who work with him already refer to him as “Uncle”…
Wild fruit
Xiaohan, the youngest daughter, shares her family’s unconventional life and exposes the depth of what it means to live in contemporary China today. Through sketches dedicated to each person in the Li clan, she shows how those close to her are forced to find new ways to survive, like wild fruit falling from a tree.
Divining Duterte
First published as opinion pieces, the essays in Divining Duterte provide contemporaneous commentaries on the context, course and consequences of the policies Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte pursued after his 2016 election.
Duterte became the first president in seventy years to come from Mindanao and the first to vault from a city mayor’s office to Malacañang Palace. Exploiting the potential of social media, Duterte was an Asian example of the elected “populist strongman,” like Brazil’s Bolsonaro, Hungary’s Orbal, and Russia’s Putin. His policies challenged the commitment to established political values assumed unassailable: human rights and the rule of law; separation of powers; and the preference to ally with the United States and other nations that shared its democratic liberal values rather than with authoritarian regimes. Despite these policies and problems coping with the pandemic, public opinion polls rewarded him with high approval ratings.
Restricted to a single presidential term, he will inevitably exert an influence on the 2022 elections. Duterte’s 2016 underdog victory rewrote the rules for presidential politics. In reviewing the path he took to bring the country towards 2022, Divining Duterte explores his success in overturning Philippine political values
Northern Girls
Qian Xiaohong is born into a sleepy Hunan village, where the new China rush towards development is a mere distant rumour. A buxom, naïve sixteen-year-old, she yearns to leave behind hometown scandal, and joins the mass migration to the bustling boomtown of Shenzhen. There, she must navigate dangerous encounters with ruthless bosses, jealous wives, sympathetic hookers and corrupt policemen as she tries to find her place in the ever-evolving society.
Hardship and tragedy are in no short supply as her journey takes her through a grinding succession of dead end jobs. To help her through this confusing maze, Xiaohong finds solace in the close ties she makes with the other migrant girls – the community of her fellow ‘northern girls’ – who quickly learn to rely on each other for humour and the enjoyment of life’s simple pleasures.
A beautiful coming-of-age novel, Northern Girls explores the inner lives of a generation of young, rural Chinese women who embark on life-changing journeys in search of something better.
Foresight
1980: A pivotal year in modern Chinese history as Premier Deng Xiaoping begins what he intends to be the transformation of China into an economic superpower. The most visible evidence of Deng’s policy is the creation of Special Economic Zones, and one has been set up in Shenzhen, next door to Hong Kong and on Fanling’s doorstep. Among Triad leaders, Uncle is the only one who recognizes that Deng’s intentions could have profound repercussions on their organizations. To protect his gang and their interests, he acts to not only minimize the danger, but to turn events to his advantage.