In the Country

Reviews

“Alvar’s…diamond prose sparkles so brightly and cuts so deeply. Each marvelous story shows us a facet of the Philippines at a distance…and how our ties to the past can be simultaneously tenuous and tenacious.”

“Summer’s standout debut is Mia Alvar’s peripatetic story collection, In the Country, which captures a global village of voices—a blue-eyed fashion model in Manila; a nanny in gilded Bahrain—with a ventriloquist’s ease.”

“Through careful, delicate prose, Alvar reveals her characters’ pasts and desires, which range from saintly to shameful in this deeply religious culture…Alvar’s characters are engaging and memorable…as she places us gently, firmly, into their imperfect lives. Grad: A–."

“In lush, sinuous sentences, Alvar probes the enduring stain of race, colonialism, and especially class, giving voice to all strata of Philippine society.”

“Offers deft portraits of transnational wanderers, blessed and cursed with mobility…Clearly a writer with enchanting powers.”

“The initial ‘selling point’ of…In the Country, is its fresh subject matter…[and her] gorgeous writing style…Alvar is the kind of writer whose imagination seems inexhaustible, and who stirs up an answering desire in her readers for more and more stories.”

“Alvar delves into the multifaceted immigrant experience, one compassionately drawn perspective at a time.”

“Alvar’s debut story collection is so well-drawn and plot-rich that you almost wish it were a novel.”

“In this stunning debut collection, the yearnings of the characters resonate well beyond the page, and each story feels as rich, as deep, and as crafted as a novel.…The language is as elegant as it is durable, while the lines of class, race, gender, and history are both blurred and crystallized.”

“Few writers…can produce collections of evenly superb stories. Mia Alvar triumphs on her first try.”

“Stunning…[Alvar’s] electric prose probes the tension between social classes…A triumphant, singular collection deserving of every accolade it will likely receive.”

“Using two narrators for this collection gives these short stories vocal variety as they alternate between female and male characters…The narrators’ voices are husky with the emotion of first-person ruminations. The listener will be drawn into the complexity of lives that balance poverty and luxury…all of these dark topics come together in this wide range of short stories.”

“In the Country is filled with graceful, carefully crafted stories—each one a world unto itself.”

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