A luminous collection of heartbreaking, startling, and gloriously unique stories set amongst the Filipino communities of California and the Philippines—now with a new preface by the author
Monstress stands as a landmark of American multicultural short fiction. Lysley Tenorio’s tales are framed by tense, fascinating dichotomies: tenderness and power, the fantastical and the realistic, pop culture and high culture, the American and the Filipino. Tenorio balances these opposites with rare skill, humor, and deep understanding, exploring universal themes—the sometimes-suffocating ties of family, the melancholy of isolation, the need to find connections—with uncommon empathy and breathtaking originality.
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“Tenorio’s stories are built on unique—even outrageous—premises. Yet he manages to make fabulous setups plausible through his meticulous crafting, deeply imagining the lives of a memorable cast of eccentrics.”
— San Francisco Chronicle
“Brilliantly quirky, often moving, always gorgeously told, these are tales of big-hearted misfits who yearn for their authentic selves with extraordinary passion and grace.”
— Chang-rae Lee, author of Native Speaker“A vibrant survey of Filipino-American immigrant history.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)“Tenorio’s stories, set amid mingling nationalities and generations, prompt comparisons to the works of Junot Díaz and Jhumpa Lahiri.”
— Los Angeles TimesBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Lysley Tenorio is the author of Monstress, named a book of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a Whiting Award, a Stegner fellowship, and the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Amielynn Abellera, an Earphones Award-winning narrator, has worked at the Mark Taper Forum, Berkeley Repertory, San Jose Stage, Shakespeare Center of LA, MainStreet Theatre, Theatre @ Boston Court, Chalk Repertory, Artists at Play, LA Women’s Shakespeare, and Katselas Theatre Company. She received her MFA degree in acting from the University of Southern California and is a member of Actors’ Equity Association.
Lysley Tenorio is the author of Monstress, named a book of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a Whiting Award, a Stegner fellowship, and the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Lysley Tenorio is the author of Monstress, named a book of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a Whiting Award, a Stegner fellowship, and the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.