Cave and Shadows is a 1983 whodunit and Martial Law era âÂÂmetaphysicalâ thriller novel written by Philippine National Artist Nick Joaquin. The setting of the novel is during Ferdinand MarcosâÂÂs martial law in the Philippines, including the time in Manila when activism was alive and demonstrations were frequent before August 1972 (described as JoaquinâÂÂs âÂÂâÂÂobjective correlativeâ to the Crisis of âÂÂ72âÂÂ), before the declaration of martial rule. It is a detective fiction that also deals with and arcane and historical cults involving beatas or âÂÂbeatified womenâ (a group of religious lay women who were "repressed by a male-dominated, colonial order") and strange events occurring inside unfamiliar caves in the Metro Manila area. Other themes include politics, love, family, friendship, reconciliation, and tyranny. One of two novels authored by Joaquin during his lifetime (written twenty-two years after JoaquinâÂÂs The Woman Who Had Two Navels), it is regarded as an important book to read for Philippine literature students. In this work, Joaquin interspersed historical facts and with fiction resulting to a mesh of âÂÂmulti-layered meaningsâÂÂ. One of the main concept for the plot is the âÂÂroutinary paganisationâ by Filipinos of the Western-rooted religion known as Catholicism.
The bizarre events in this novel includes the inexplicable death of Nenita Coogan. CooganâÂÂs body was found naked inside a cave located within the suburban regions of Manila. The death by Coogan triggered a criminal investigation, truth searching, collision of the past and the present, and the unhinging of reality. The end of the novel exposes human nature, belief, and certainty.