The Unsurrendered

Book excerpt: The voices in this book are those of the 260,000 Filipino and American men and women who made up the partisan group called The Unsurrendered in the Philippines during WWII. This historical romantic novel revolves around guerrillas who fight to bring the American Army to victory in 1945. Jacob, an American secret agent, and Carla, a Filipina, join other partisans in 1941 to fight behind Japanese lines. The American forces capture the Philippine Islands after the Japanese destruction of Manila. In Manilas sprawling ruins lay the bodies of more than 100,000 Filipinos who were massacred at the hands of Japanese soldiers. It is estimated that one out of twenty Filipino citizens died during the Japanese occupation. The Unsurrendered is the last book in a trilogy called The Pearl of the Orient. The first is A Healing Place, and the second is Blessed Are the Merciful, Our Forgotten Soldiers.