Broken Roads

Architect Adrian Rivera returns to his hometown in Isabela expecting only a temporary stay after his mother suffers a stroke. The life he carefully built in Manila is waiting for him, along with a promotion that promises the future he once wanted. Home, however, has a way of refusing to remain in the past.

During his journey north, Adrian meets Lucas Mendoza, a quiet travel photographer documenting the disappearing landscapes and forgotten communities of Isabela. What begins as a chance encounter slowly becomes an unexpected companionship as their paths continue to cross through churches, farms, rivers, mountain roads, fishing villages, and towns where everyone remembers names and no goodbye is ever permanent.

While Adrian struggles between ambition and belonging, Lucas quietly searches for a photograph capable of capturing the soul of a province that has taught generations of Filipinos what resilience truly means. As they travel together, both men discover that the places they are trying to preserve are changing as quickly as the people who call them home.

When a devastating earthquake tears through Northern Luzon, broken highways, collapsed bridges, and shattered communities force Adrian and Lucas into the heart of the disaster. Amid loss, sacrifice, and rebuilding, they discover that love is not found in escaping life's fractures but in choosing to remain when everything else falls apart.

Set against the breathtaking landscapes of Isabela, Broken Roads is a quiet literary romance about home, memory, service, and the unexpected people who teach us that every road worth taking eventually leads back to one another.