Jeannie Barroga

Turn Right at the Water Buffalo Jeannie Barroga

"Sigé na!" barks the nationalist, his shirt open to his waist. The jungle bakes his chest and his delivery, urgent, heated. Should Lainie slap her bet on the cockfight or just get away? History already proves Lainie ignores clues and gravitates, well, runs to danger. The fictionalized novel is based on true events in the Philippines, the post-1986 Marcos regime after 24 years of martial law: For her 40-some-year Family Reunion, Reena, manipulates her Americanized daughter, Lainie, travel writer, to join her. Needing THE article to keep her job, Lainie goes "for roots". But it's really an overdue tug of war with the town magnate hoarding plantations. Lainie maneuvers through language, mystic female diwatas, bouts with Reena and realizes the Reunion includes jungle nationalists and kababayans who reveal their true alliances.