Join us for Music Heard in Hi-Fi and Other Stories, the third book by bestselling author and regular Skylight host Noel Alumit!
This moving collection of short stories explores the lives of those straddling the United States and the Philippines. These memorable characters are both tender and illuminating: a grief-stricken man returns to a country that only knew him as a woman, an aspiring Broadway star is haunted by her past, a husband rebuilds a life after his wife leaves him, and a boy testifies against the man who abused him. Brave and thoughtful, these stories delve into the most universal of themes—family, community, love and understanding.
Noel Alumit’s graceful, understated stories resonate long after one is done reading them. Each one is an engraving of the diasporic Filipino experience, etched with finely drawn emotions of melancholy, longing, regret, and love. Deeply personal, often queer, always vulnerable, these stories reveal the ways in which history embeds itself in the body, in the mind, and, most of all, in the lonely soul.
--Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize Winner, The Sympathizer
Noel Alumit’s brilliant, long-awaited collection, MUSIC HEARD IN HI-FI & Other Stories, spans decades, from the 1960s to the present, and is set mostly in Greater Los Angeles and Manila. Alumit is a storyteller who writes with profound compassion and sharp observations. He dramatizes the highs and lows of people who are not typically centered in movies and books, and trains his attention on the tragedy and beauty that has always been there if only we had paid more attention. A compelling, vibrant collection that you can read in one sitting, but will want to return to again and again.
--Grace Talusan, The Body Papers
Noel Alumit is a longtime host at Skylight bookstore. He’s hosted well over onethousand events in the last 20 years. Noel wrote the novels Letters to Montgomery Clift and Talking to the Moon. In addition to his literary life, Noel is an actor, painter and photographer. He received a Master of Divinity in Buddhist Chaplaincy in 2018. Noel is currently an Associate Editor at the Buddhist magazine Lion’s Roar. Follow him on Instagram: @noelalumit.