In the Country

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In the Country
368 pages; Knopf

"You can leave a place, but places have a way of not leaving you," a ghost advises a bereaved mother in a Manila suburb, a theme plaited through the nine stories in this accomplished debut of longing and redemption. In lush, sinuous sentences, Alvar probes the enduring stain of race, colonialism and especially class, giving voice to all strata of Philippine society.

— Hamilton Cain