Three Nights, three Days / Eros Atalia ; Translated by David T. Ong

For documentarist Raymundo "Mong" Mojica, his return to Magapok, in time for the town fiesta, was simply to fulfill his mother's death wish: to place her picture on the altar of the chapel, and to scatter her ashes on the plains of the small town. However, a super typhoon was headed straight for Sta. Barbara, the province where Magapok was situated. He raced to reach the town before the typhoon does. What should have been a simple three-days celebration of the feast of Sta. Barbara de Vendita turned sinister and ugly. Mong witnessed how the ground swallowed a whole cow. He helped the townsfold yank a boy from a huge hand pulling it down to the grave. He captured in his video camera hundreds of lifeless Magapok citizens who did not wake up from their sleep, and how the light fizzled out from the surviving population. Are these caused by paranormal beings? Is this some bio-chemical warfare? Are they being abducted by aliens? How else can they be further from the truth??

In English.

2013 Grand Prize, Novel, Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature