Seventeen-year-old Bobby Heredia keeps seeing his double, Cándido, whom no one else can see. Seemingly gifted with the ability to literally see through people-bones and all Bobby stows away. His return to his family is full of mearning and suspense. What has Bobby been up to? Cándido's Apocalypse is full of the rich prose that made the greatest Filipino writer in English, Nick Joaquin, stand out then and now, while the novella makes readers confront the question of Filipino identity, one attached to the colonial past and yet struggling to find the self that looks to the future.

Nick Joaquin (1917-2004), novelist, playwright, poet, journalist, historian, and biographer, has been the recipient of almost all of the prestigious awards in literature and the arts, including the National Artist Award for Literature, the highest national recognition given to Filipino artists who have made significant contributions to the development of Philippine arts and to the cultural heritage of the country. Widely regarded as the greatest Filipino writer of the twentieth century, he was also conferred, among other recognitions the Republic of Cultural Heritage Award for Literature in 1961: the Journalist of the Year Award in the early 1960s; the Book of the Year Award in 1979 for hiAlmanac for Manileños The National Book Award for several of his works; the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts (the Asian counterpart of the Nobel Prize) in 1996; and the Tanglaw ng Lahi Award in 1997.