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.