Most books give some baiting information without giving away the plot details. Unfortunately, this book cannot. Why? Because you are part of a social experiment.
Certainly you can cheat, by jumping ahead, or you can trust me, and yourself, and follow the linear structure I have provided: Read Part 1, as a novel, as it is indeed, which will then be explained in Part 2. See if you twigged to it....
Part 1 simply narrates with some insight and drama the lives of two families, one Protestant the other Roman Catholic, in the rural Philippines. That's about as much as I am going to tell you for the moment.
This book, at least its thrust, has been in the making for 30 years. When I finally returned to it 2017, hopefully for the last time, to put forward the idea that had burned indelibly in my heart and mind, I realized I had encountered a tautology?or perhaps I was barking up the wrong tree.
My essential problem now became to show how an idea, a mental perspective, could be actually operationalized, and across generations. So I set out to write a vignette for Part 1?which turned into a 120 page mini novel.
You will enjoy Part 1, as a novel, and flounder in Part 2, but with persistence all will encircle and become clear.