5/21/2023 0 Comments In the country by mia alvar“I could picture him, reading my words somewhere, chuckling at my attempts to save some version of his life. “You lay there-Esmeralda, daughter of the dirt, born to toil in God’s name till your hands or heart gave out-reclining like an infant or a queen, a hundred levels aboveground.” In “A Contract Overseas,” a budding fiction writer in the Philippines reveres her older brother despite his immoral, often dangerous behavior in Saudi Arabia. In the stunning “Esmeralda,” a cleaning woman ponders her station in life as she dusts offices in the twin towers in the months preceding 9/11. In this debut collection, Filipino students, teachers, activists, maids, and chauffeurs negotiate their lives under martial law at home and seek fortune abroad in the Middle East and New York.Įach of these nine revelatory stories delivers characters who are equal parts endearing and disturbing.
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