Kabilang sa Nawawala/Among the Disappeared is a novella about a young man in search of his true parents whom he learns, after dark and gritty experiences in the city, are desaparecidos. The original story by Ricky Lee in Filipino is accompanied by its English translation by Bienvenido Lumbera and Buenaventura Medina and notes and introduction by the author.

Jun-Jun wakes up one morning in 1987 and realizes he has become invisible. After teasing his best friend Gene who can’t feel him, much less see him, he goes off to explore the underbelly of the city, going onstage among drag impersonators and singers unseen, swimming in Manila Bay, sleeping in the cemetery. He becomes more substantial, able to feel and be felt though still invisible, and he follows home an old woman carrying a placard of a desaparecido who has his face. He learns that she is his grandmother with a picture of his father, and over time, he finds his mother, a journalist with a talent for disguise. He spends some happy moments with her, unseen, before tragedy strikes again. Gene later learns Jun-Jun’s story from a cassette tape he recorded. Each chapter begins with a one-line epigraph that is a quote from Jun-Jun on tape. Based on the recording, the story is narrated by Gene through Jun Jun’s point of view.

2024/96pp
bookpaper/paperback