In 1986, abusive and substance-addicted action movie star Kirk Decker realises that his survival is inextricably tangled with the fate of a matriarchal barangay (tribal community) in the 16th-century Philippines.

Meet Kirk Decker, abusive 1980s B-movie actor. He’s self-destructing from drink and drugs, and some people want him dead. While shooting an action film in the Philippines, he has unearthly visions and weird encounters.

Meet Dayang, the dutiful queen of a matriarchal tribe in 16th-century Luzon. Why are her people suffering from mysterious diseases? How can they call on the spirit world to save them? And what connects them through time, space and magic to Kirk and other violent white men in need of redemption?

Tom Sykes is the author of seven books including The Realm of the Punisher, a collection of reportage on the Philippines that received good reviews in the Times Literary Supplement and the London Magazine; Imagining Manila, an academic monograph; and Coast of Teeth, a travelogue of the English seaside, endorsed by Will Self and Arthur Smith.

Tom is a regular contributor to the foreign section of Private Eye magazine and has published journalism in New Statesman, The Scotsman, The Telegraph, Morning Star, New Internationalist, Monocle, New African, Red Pepper, Travel Africa, South East Asia Globe and numerous other print and digital media around the world. His academic publications in the fields of Philippines studies, literary criticism, history, postcolonialism and journalism studies have appeared in Interventions, The Journal of Postcolonial Writing, New Formations, Foundation, Social Identities and many other academic journals. He is the Founding Editor of Star & Crescent, an independent 'hyperlocal' news and commentary website.

He is Associate Professor in Creative Writing and Global Journalism at the University of Portsmouth, UK, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He lives in Portsmouth, UK, with his wife, young daughter and cat.