Some legacies are best left buried…
Villa Sepulveda is a storied relic of the Philippines’ past: a Spanish colonial manor, its moldering stonework filled with centuries-old heirlooms, nestled in a remote coconut plantation. When their patriarch dies mysteriously, his far-flung family returns to their ancestral home. Filipino-American student Adrian Sepulveda invites his college girlfriend, Sophie, a transracial adoptee who knows little about her own Filipino heritage, to the funeral of a man who was entwined with the history of the country itself.
Sophie soon learns that there is more to the Sepulvedas than a grand tradition of political and entrepreneurial success. Adrian’s relatives clash viciously amid grief, confusion, and questions about the family curse that their matriarch refuses to answer. When a landslide traps them all in the villa, secrets begin to emerge, revealing sins both intimately personal and unthinkably public.
Sifting through fact, folklore, and fiction, Sophie finds herself at the center of a reckoning. Did a mythical demon really kill Adrian’s grandfather? How complicit are the Sepulvedas in the country’s oppressive history? As a series of ill omens befall the villa, Sophie must decide whom to trust—and whom to flee—before the family’s true legacy comes to take its revenge . . .
From author Victor Manibo:
While it may seem like a departure from the science fiction thrillers I’ve written before, but at its core, The Villa, Once Beloved is a natural successor to my existing body of work so far. It is a contemporary story about identity, self-discovery, and family, but it’s also firmly grounded in a larger social and historical context.
The inspiration came to me as I watched with dread the continued rise of fascism all over the world, including in my homeland, which had recently replaced a strongman president with a former dictator’s son. I kept thinking about the cyclical nature of history and the seemingly inescapable weight of the past, and about legacies, both familial and national. I found myself grappling with questions like: what kind of family raises these kinds of monsters? What kind of culture venerates these monsters?
The Gothic has always been one of my favorite genres, and I knew it was the ideal medium for exploring these struggles. In The Villa, Once Beloved work with literal and figurative corruption, with concrete and metaphorical horrors, and on both the universal and deeply personal level. This is also my most personal novel to date, and I’m so excited to continue working with Erewhon in bringing this story to life.
From editor Sarah Guan:
I am a lifelong student of history, and have always felt a connection to the colonial and post-colonial histories of developing nations. I’m also a great fan of the gothic story as a narrative form, and have always felt that it’s most effective when using its classic tropes—like the ancient family secrets, the ingenue trapped in a mysterious house, the supernatural phenomena that might be all in one’s head—to uncover true historical injustices that lurk behind the façade of propriety and power. Ergo, when Victor pitched me the idea of a gothic novel that tackles the deepest secrets of a fractured diasporic family as well as the dark history of a nation struggling to emerge from centuries of colonial rule—even though it would be unlike anything we’d collaborated on thus far—I knew The Villa, Once Beloved would be something special. The book exceeded all my expectations, and is sure to delight (and challenge!) readers of gothic fiction, family sagas, and magical realism alike. I can’t wait to share this story with the world!
Victor Manibo is a Filipino novelist living in New York. A 2022 Lambda Literary Emerging Voices Fellow, he is the author of the science fiction novels The Sleepless and Escape Velocity from Erewhon Books. Aside from fiction, he also spins fantastical tales in his career as a lawyer. He lives in Queens with his husband, their dog, and their two cats. Find him online at victormanibo.com and on most social media platforms @victormanibo.
