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The Betrayed

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The Betrayed

Written by: Reine Arcache Melvin
Narrated by: Nicole Guanco-Murphy
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An unforgettable novel about sisterhood, familial duties and love

The Betrayed tells the story of two sisters who love the same man. As dictatorship and political upheaval ravage the Philippines, the sister's conflicting passions threaten to lead them to betray not only each other, but all that their father stood for.

Shy, idealistic Pilar initially resolves to carry on her father's fight against the regime, while her flamboyant older sister Lali reacts by marrying the enemy – Arturo, the dictator's godson. Each tries to find their place in this violent world, but can they withstand the corruption of politics and the relentless pull of their own desires?

Taking in the Philippines' troubled history from the Marcos dictatorship to the establishment of the present totalitarian regime, and expertly layering the many aspects of the human condition, The Betrayed is a complex and luminous novel.

©2026 Reine Arcache Melvin (P)2026 Europa Editions (UK) Ltd.
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Critic Reviews

"THE BETRAYED is destined to be a literary classic, not just for readers in the Philippines but literary lovers worldwide. Its nuanced disquisition on the Filipino socio-political-economic elite—how many prove the adage 'Power corrupts'—become timeless observations and lessons on the general human condition. Melvin's elegant and sensual sentences also enhance reader empathy so that we end up caring about the characters even as we ultimately learn about ourselves. Yet it's not only timeless but timely. The Philippines' 2022 Presidential election highlight how the country is at an existential crossroads on whether its future development will progress or regress. But its reminder that suffering never ends only highlights the import of justice—how we must perpetually strive for its redemption."
"[Melvin's] beautiful, sensual, visceral writing shows us that the past is not really a foreign country, but our own country in an eternal loop."
"Highly readable and enjoyable, it compellingly contains, in its confident tone and language, a powerful mosaic of images, characters, and relationships."
"If, as poet-exile Czeslaw Milosz said, 'language is the only homeland,' then Melvin's, The Betrayed is the soil we've been seeking—rich, elusive, yet ever-surging in our blood, bones, and breath. Told with the intimacy of a lover and with an historian's sweeping, clear-eyed vision, it is the story of moral survival under the weight of political upheaval and human frailty. At the heart of this novel is love—of family, of motherland. Love that breaks barriers, crosses continents, transcends time. Fluid, poetic, and lush, these pages navigate our deepest longings, fears, and the relentless search for that one true thing in a ruined world."
"In this story of contemporary Philippines, sisterhood is the indelible trope: Reine Arcache Melvin crafts the indiscreet harm of Manila's bourgeoisie through two sisters, Lali and Pilar, whose entangled acts of lust and survival never diminish what's true—their love for each other. Story is at the heart of Melvin's art. Like Adichie's Purple Hibiscus or Half of a Yellow Sun, Melvin's US debut novel, The Betrayed, imagines politics through the propulsive sweep of romance, mixing private infidelities and public disaster with a storyteller's verve."
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