The title character is a Filipino woman in 2001 New York who works as a maid for families and in an office building. There's also a shocking revelation in 'Esmeralda,' though it's revealed more deliberately, with an increasing sense of dread as the story progresses. Just as Steve starts to feel like he's actually home again, he learns something that makes him realize that his mother might not be the saintly person he always thought she was. His father always forbade his wife from working outside the home now that he's ill and confined to his bed, she has opened a small store in their house. The collection begins with 'The Kontrabida,' about Steve, a pharmacist who returns to his childhood home in suburban Manila to visit his beloved mother and his dying father, whom he grew up fearing and resenting. These are people who have little to nothing in common with one another, except that they're all trying to find a home, and it's always a more challenging task than anyone would expect. to Bahrain, but because every character is different, and portrayed with love and a rare kind of understanding. Her book, as Walt Whitman might say, contains multitudes - not just because of its varied settings, from the Philippines to the U.S. You could call that one of the themes of In the Country, but it's difficult to reduce Alvar's stunning short story collection to just one idea. Often people do not love difference, but people who are different can sometimes find love, and something like a home, in unexpected places.

She's a lot like many of the other characters in Alvar's stories - exceptional, not exactly able to fit in, in a country that will never quite be home for her. While shopping, another Filipino expatriate mistakes her for a maid. The teacher knows this, of course she's left her home in the Philippines for a country where she doesn't speak the language and isn't yet quite familiar with the customs. The mother wants nothing more than for her daughter to be 'normal.' She explains to the teacher: 'Often people do not love difference.' In 'The Miracle Worker,' one of the nine stories that make up Mia Alvar's debut collection In the Country, a wealthy Bahraini woman hires a Filipino special education teacher to try to coax some communication from her daughter, a profoundly disabled girl with extensive physical deformities. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title In the Country Subtitle Stories Author Mia Alvar

In the country mia alvar summary