The Secret of Angat

March 1945. The Japanese Imperial Army is retreating from Manila to the northern provinces of the Philippines. Lieutenant Takeji Nakamura and the men of the 15th Engineer Regiment have been ordered to repair a bridge at Angat, a remote village surrounded by dense jungle, to hasten the withdrawal of the Japanese forces. If Lieutenant Nakamura and his men don’t complete the bridge on time, thousands of Japanese Imperial Army troops will be captured by the American forces advancing from the south. At first, Angat seems like any other village in the Philippines. Nakamura, an engineer by training, scoffs at rumors spread by neighboring townspeople about Angat. But shortly after they arrive, strange things happen. Nakamura begins to wonder whether the stories about Angat are true. Why has the village been isolated deliberately? Why are Angat’s inhabitants feared by the communities around it? What terrible secret is Angat hiding? As they race to finish the bridge, Nakamura must deal with his men’s increasingly fragile mental state and the sinister forces that threaten their survival. The Secret of Angat is the first of a trilogy of supernatural tales, set in the Philippines. Written in a style described as Joseph Conrad meets M.R. James, The Secret of Angat takes you to a world where nothing is quite what it seems to be and hidden forces control the fates of men.

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