Description
Book SynopsisA collection of stories that focuses on multigenerational tales of intertwined Filipino families. Set in the huge yet relatively overlooked and misunderstood Filipino diaspora in the United States, this book follows characters who live in the shadow of the histories of the United States and its former colony, the Philippines.
Trade ReviewA grandmother obsesses over her granddaughter’s un-Catholic upbringing. A son visits his estranged father at a hospital where he is under a suicide watch. A family imports a young maid from the Philippines, and all hell, with love, breaks loose. In the eyes of a dog, a boy reconnects with his deceased father. A war veteran migrates to Los Angeles and moves into the overcrowded home of his sister’s family to take care of their aging mother.
Written in a seemingly effortless grace and clean-eyed prose, the short stories in Roley’s long-awaited collection, The Last Mistress of Jose Rizal, is poignant, intimate, and heartbreaking. These interlinked narratives – all the characters are from the same multi-generational family – offer refreshing perspectives of the Philippine experience in America and what it means to be a Filipino, or a Filipino American, in the country of dreams where they have to constantly make do with the odds, surrender to the scars of war, childhood, and family, endure failed hopes and loves, and grapple with the contradictions of living in-between cultures, homes, and memories."" -- R. Zamora Linmark, author of
Leche and
These Books Belong to Ken Z
