The Fireflies of Guiuan

Shortly after joining Aguinaldo’s army as a young medic, José R. Lugay greets his country’s independence from Spain with bright dreams of the future. He marries his childhood sweetheart. Only a few months later, the dogs of war rip his dreams to tatters. A harrowing year with the defenders in the Philippine-American War follows. After the war is lost, he spends five years seeking lucrative employment as a doctor in Manila, without much success. Did his refusal to pledge allegiance to the new colonizer affect his prospects? He accepts a post as a country doctor in Guiuan, Samar, a remote town in the country’s most depressed province. Ten years of a hardscrabble life there seem about to be followed by ten more. Then the Warays choose him to fill one of Samar’s three seats in the country’s House of Representatives. His return to Manila as a distinguished Congressman must be the peak of his career, but two terms as a legislator leave him wondering if it isn’t actually a diversion from his true calling. Should he stay in the House, or run for the Senate, or become the eminent Manila doctor he had once aspired to be?