num_pages: 347
description: These nine globe-trotting unforgettable stories from Mia Alvar a remarkable new literary talent vividly give voice to the women and men of the Filipino diaspora. Here are exiles emigrants and wanderers uprooting their families from the Philippines to begin new lives in the Middle East the United States and elsewhereand sometimes turning back again.A pharmacist living in New York smuggles drugs to his ailing father in Manila only to discover alarming truths about his family and his past. In Bahrain a Filipina teacher drawn to a special pupil finds to her surprise that she is questioning her own marriage. A college student leans on her brother a laborer in Saudi Arabia to support her writing ambitions without realizing that his is the life truly made for fiction. And in the title story a journalist and a nurse face an unspeakable trauma amidst the political turmoil of the Philippines in the 1970s and 80s.In the Country speaks to the heart of everyone who has ever searched for a place to call home. From teachers to housemaids from mothers to sons Alvars powerful debut collection explores the universal experiences of loss displacement and the longing to connect across borders both real and imagined. Deeply compassionate and richly felt In the Country marks the emergence of a formidable new writer.
language: English
title: In the Country
publisher: Knopf