The Weight of the Sun, a short story collection by Geronimo Tagatac, sparkles with an appeal that comes from a deep understanding of human nature. Here are the farm laborers, dancers, kitchen workers, and soldiers who make up a world that is wrought with pain, nostalgia, and stunning grace. From the widowed Filipino father raising a son in a migrant work camp to the young veteran haunted by the ghost of war, The Weight of the Sun shows us not only what it is to be human, but how the human spirit can grow when faced with overwhelming adversity. Tagatac brings these characters home in our hearts with a poise and dignity that marks a new and powerful voice in short fiction.
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Praise for The Weight of the Sun
Geronimo Tagatac is a quiet man with a powerful voice. His stories draw you in to a world of curious ethnic mixes and cross–cultural situations that surprise, then seem natural and true; engage you in Vietnam and the aftermath of war and leave you hovering at the edge of thirty year old stories that still live, often quiet and hidden, in America today. Maybe they are growing louder.
— Rich Wandschneider, Executive Director, Fishtrap, Inc
Media
Literary Arts lists The Weight of the Sun as an Oregon Book Awards Finalist
The Asian Reporter’s Review and Interview with Tagatac
Reviews
“Geronimo Tagatac is a quiet man with a powerful voice. His stories draw you in to a world of curious ethnic mixes and cross–cultural situations that surprise, then seem natural and true; engage you in Vietnam and the aftermath of war and leave you hovering at the edge of thirty year old stories that still live, often quiet and hidden, in America today. Maybe they are growing louder.”
— Rich Wandschneider, Executive Director, Fishtrap, Inc.
“These are the stores of lost boys who have become lost men. They look in the mirror and don’t quite believe what they see before them. Who do these sad eyes belong to? Where have they been and where will they go? They have toiled in the fields beneath the hot Manila sun. They have wasted away in claustrophobic cubicles lit by artificial light. And they continue to search for something just beyond their reach.”
— Leslie Royal, former Portland publicist, now with Avalon Publishing Group
“These are important stories giving heart and voice to people often overlooked in mainstream literature.”
— Craig Lesley, author of The Sky Fisherman