Music Heard in Hi-Fi and Other Stories is the third book by bestselling author 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

These achingly tender short stories, centering around Filipino lives in Los Angeles, cross of all kinds of borders-gender, nation, opportunity, risk, the moment when life changes direction forever. They will crack your heart wide open. -Janet Fitch, White Oleander, Chimes of a Lost Cathedral

Music Heard in Hi-Fi & Other Stories