The Vanished (Ang Nawawala) is a comic, queer and Filipino take on the detective novella. It is made up of seven interconnected stories featuring the exploits of Brigido aka "Bree," a gay masseur and barangay hall receptionist turned unlikely detective. Each story involves a case that needs to be solved, a search for a missing item or person and is titled as such: the missing milkfish, the missing knives, the missing ring, the missing angel (the "angel" refers to a little girl who plays a role in the Salubong, a religious play held during Holy Week that dramatizes the encounter of the Blessed Virgin and the newly-risen Christ), the missing faces, the missing doves, and the missing umbrella. Bree's search for these small, seemingly inconsequential objects and persons unearths other issues and crimes in the barangay of Talong Punay. A barangay is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines, and therefore serves as a microcosm of contemporary Philippine society.
Best Book of Short Fiction in Filipino, National Book Awards 2018; Best Book, Pride of UST Awards 2019
