Dark Skies: Tales of Turbulence in Paradise

“Instead of exoticizing things he does not fully understand, he tries to actually understand them…Haldane's descriptions can be a source of social history.” –Manila Times

This heartfelt collection of essays begins were David Haldane’s award-winning 2023 book, A Tooth in My Popsicle, left off. After making the difficult decision to settle in the Philippines where his wife, Ivy, had been born and raised, David and his family spent two years building their dream house overlooking the sea, getting their kids settled in local schools, and falling in love with a vibrant culture that, for him anyway, seemed like something out of a fantasy novel.

Then disaster struck.

First came the COVID pandemic, prompting their adopted country to declare the world’s longest lockdown, followed closely by a Category Five Super Typhoon that nearly knocked their house down and blew it away. Besides pandemic pandemonium and typhoon terror, however, this book explores a land and sea of profound perfection, a colorful culture crisp with courage, and the rumblings of distant events threatening to reinvent the world.

Mostly, it’s a book about change, something all of us must finally endure.