At Night We Are Dancers

by RM Topacio-Aplaon

At Night We Are Dancers is a story of love and family amidst an ever-changing political milieu, as well as understanding existence and purpose, but, above all, embracing redemption in its countless forms.

This novel spanning seven decades documents the life of Tomas Franco “Cocoy” Sabater and his ascent to becoming one of the Philippines’s most callous vigilante and assassins. Punctuated by news clippings from different generations, essays and accounts from a perceptive journalist, internal monologues, a short children’s story from a failed novelist, and a lingering homage to ballet and kundiman, the story progresses in a non-linear fashion, conscientiously dissecting Sabater’s tumultuous pursuit of reprisal as he tries to fix his disintegrating relationship with his dying wife and growing daughter.

About the Author


RM Topacio-Aplaon is a novelist from Imus, Cavite, Philippines. He has published two novels in Filipino under the University of the Philippines Press. The first one, Lila ang Kulay ng Pamamaalam (loosely, Lilac is the Colour of Farewell), published in 2015, was shortlisted for the National Book Awards and the Madrigal-Gonzales First Book Award. It also earned a runner-up citation from the Gawad Gintong Aklat by the Book Development Association of the Philippines. His second novel, Muling Nanghaharana ang Dapithapon (Dusk Serenades Again) was published in 2018. Both comprise the Imus Novels, a septology centered on Topacio-Aplaon’s hometown. The five remaining books will be published by the same press, with Topograpiya ng Lumbay (Topography of Grief) set to be released this year, and the over 1000-page novel Anatomiya ng Desperasyon, (Anatomy of Desperation), as the last book of the saga.

At Night We Are Dancers is his first English-language novel.

Genres: Literary Fiction

312 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2021

Reviews

[Ken Mangaco · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an inept reader bereft of any literary education, whose reading taste hinges heavily upon recommendations and bandwagon trends, I have always been proud that I discovered RM Topacio-Aplaon on my own. I lend credence to this hyperbolic belief that he is, at the very least, a product of my own inquisitiveness, however shallow that may be. It thus offers me validation during moments like this—drunk in memories and drowning in reverence and admiration after reading an RM novel—when I am reminded that, at least once, I had an eye for good literature after all.

I initially had qualms about this novel—not about RM’s competence, as a published Filipino writer, to write an English novel, but about whether I would enjoy it. I hate reading English literature. Perhaps that is why it took me almost two years since I purchased the book before I could finally confront myself to open it and read it committedly. Yet after finishing the book, all I could do was regret not having read it sooner.

Beyond its non-linear plotline, it was RM’s prose that left me wanting more. Umbrellas that blossom like flowers beneath the violent pour of rain. Shadows performing ballet on the wall. And a city emerging along the palm creases of a dancing muse. RM’s writing invites us to observe the mundane with childlike wonder, tapping the innocence within us to appreciate the otherwise ordinary and pedestrian. The kowtowing of humble mimosas. The submission of birds to the gentle firmament. The soft kisses of mud on juvenile feet. Even the giant canvas of the sea.

In this novel, however, innocence is a short-lived promise. At its core sit reprisal, rage, and alienation. It follows the story of an assassin and how he dismantles rapists, sex offenders, and criminals. Fueled by his childhood trauma, he satiates his anger and frustration with blood and retribution to keep himself sane. However, in the process of borrowing his sanity from the bullets, his past and destiny revisit him, robbing him of what little of his life remains—sealing his fate with suffering and alienation.

At Night We Are Dancers challenges human nature, if not giving it a face. Is reprisal an extension of love, or its death? Is grief a respectable excuse for abandonment? Should justice be given or demanded? Which is which: to forgive to forget, or to forget to forgive?

[Bianca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the sea, the one I dreamt of when I was a kid. From my toenails a vast expanse of crystalline sand and the endless breadth of blue. A giant canvas mirroring the heavens and the clouds and whatever is alive up there: a winged creature, an aeroplane. Everything ends, even dreams.

The choices that we make and the price we have to pay for them...

Really absorbing read and I liked the prose too.

[Gillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

An intricate tale of revenge, of moving on, of love. A masterpiece of non-linear storytelling and great emotional depth. This made me cry or at least tear up multiple times. I am in love with the author's writing style. Overall, it's not perfect (no novel is, really), but its flaws were forgivable or hugely overshadowed by all of this book's strengths.

This novel criminally under-read. More people need to read this, though it will be triggering for some.

[rk · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story itself is actually really well told and the nonlinear narrative style worked well. But god forbid man go five pages without a paragraph longer than a page. Also too much thesaurus using. Good job you know big words. But also poor grasp of some common turns of phrase and english sentence structures. Probably would have been much better if he just wrote it in tagalog or whatever his native language is and got a professional translator to translate it.

[Shiandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

A diverse and unique tale told from the perspective of a narrator who lived a life filled with uncertainty. This book definitely wowed me in terms of the direction the story took and the writing style.

[kembot · Rating 3 out of 5]

"And that solitude was no longer a curse, but part of my destiny."

[Aubrey Yano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please, I don’t know how to get over this book! 🥹

[Billy Ibarra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Parang nagbabasa rin ng Imus novel niya. Sa katunayan, nakakawing din ito sa Imus novel niya kapag nabasa mo ito. Wala akong masabi masyado sa kuwento, saka na siguro kapag naka-move on na ako sa kuwento.