This is a pretty meta book essentially about uprising of locals during American-Phillipines war in 1901 but you start in present time with American film maker and Filipino translator and the war time is looked at as a film scenario. There is also interspersed plot in time between starring film maker's parents, dad being famous film maker, too, very much similar to Coppola, filming his magnum opus in Phillipines. 
Apostol has interesting and fresh style and I liked it. The narrator has constant comments throughout the narration which I appreciate although it is often challangeing to tame Apostol's wild thoughts. She's jugling several storylines at once mixed with historical facts so it's intense at times and hard to follow.
Nevertheless, it was an impactful story and I really liked reading about unknown history of a faraway place.