The First Impulse by Laurel Fantauzzo

"Lyrical and intimate, but also searing and brutally
honest, this is one of the best things you will read in
a year—perhaps even in a lifetime.” –F.H. Batacan, Smaller And Smaller Circles
At a film festival in Rotterdam, a passionate film journalist, Alexis Tioseco, fell in love with Nika Bohinc, the youngest editor of the oldest film magazine in Slovenia. Their love blossomed over different cities, visits to each others’ homelands, and Skype calls, until Nika decided to join Alexis in the Philippines.
On September 1, 2009, intruders murdered Alexis and Nika in their Quezon City home. The case remained unsolved.
A year later, a young Filipina American author travels to the Philippines, hoping for a sense of home. Inexplicably drawn to Alexis and Nika’s story, from their fateful encounter to their untimely deaths, she begins an investigation of her own—unraveling the complexities of crime, injustice, and community in a haunted country.
Originally published in 2017, this second edition takes us on a deeply personal and critical search for home, identity, and justice. Through reports, old letters, and historical research, Laurel Flores Fantauzzo weaves a breathing work that reveals the interconnectedness of Filipino suffering, and the continuing resonance of one love story.