Touch Me Now

Touch Me Now follows the powerful Dela Costa clan as they host a feast and live their lives, tracing the entanglements of nationalism, religion, and privilege. Marcelito is pulled between private pressures and the public reckoning of student protests, while his father approves violent police measures, including a strict curfew. Elsewhere, his cousin Ramon operates a nightclub where patrons pay to break that curfew, and cousin Maribel runs a media monopoly. The novel shows how power operates without care, as a karinderya owner’s son is killed, a student hardens her heart, and Marcelito is swept into a revolt. Set over a fortnight, Touch Me Now is about how power is sustained, and why people strive—by whatever means—to wield it.