Blood and Silk by Michael Vatikiotis is a great overview of South East Asia and its challenges from a journalist and mediator who has made the region his home for over 30 years.
472 Days by Bob East is the story of the kidnap of Australian Warren Rodwell by Filipino Islamist fighters in 2011-2013, and describes his ordeal in the camps in great detail.
Radical by Maajid Nawaz is an honest account of a British boy’s recruitment to the Islamist cause, and how he moved away from it.
The film Metro Manila is a tense and touching story of rural immigrants adrift in the huge metropolis.
The Magindanao massacre took place in 2009 exactly as described by Fairchild. In December 2019, two Ampatuan brothers along with dozens of other associates were convicted in a Quezon court following a ten-year trial. Over 50 others were acquitted.
There is of course no Trade Winds Cafe, but visitors to any of the world’s Trader Vic’s might find the description similar.