When the Rainbow Goddess Wept is her first novel and close to her heart because it was inspired by experiences that my parents had during World War 2 in the Philippines. Aside from integrating stories from my parents, the novel also weaves in ancient Philippine epics. When the Rainbow Goddess Wept is a coming-of-age novel of a young girl during World War II in the Philippines. This novel has elements similar to Pan’s Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro, though her work is not as dark. There is perhaps something of Anne Frank in her girl protagonist. When war breaks out, the nine-year old girl Yvonne has to leave her city home with her parents to hide in the mountains of Mindanao. Her father is an American-trained engineer who is part of the guerrilla movement. Her mother, who is used to comfort and city-life, is totally unfit for harsh jungle/mountain life. Yvonne becomes a witness to Philippine wartime horrors. She sees her mother deliver a still-born son behind some bushes with a Japanese patrol nearby. She sees a doctor lose his mind when his wife, another doctor, is hacked to death by Japanese soldiers. She experiences fear, sadness, and even hate, but Yvonne discovers that the epic stories that the family cook tells her gives her comfort. She listens to the ancient myths and legends about gods and goddesses, warrior kings and woman warriors. When the cook dies, Yvonne takes over in retelling the ancient epic stories. In the end, Yvonne realizes that the wartime experience she had gone through, was just like the epic stories of old, and that she was the epic singer for this war story. Considered a classic in Pacific War and Philippine literatures, When the Rainbow Goddess Wept is published by the University of Michigan Press in the US and by the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines.

 

AWARDS:
• The book received excellent reviews and quite a number of academic
papers and dissertations have been written about it.