Under the Aratiles: Stories of a Childhood by Gem Deveras Mañosa

In Under the Aratiles Tree, Gem Deveras Mañosa navigates through her memories and revisits her childhood, a time when—in that oft-quoted sentiment—life was so much simpler. And so it would seem. The stories in this book capture snippets of a childhood confined within a neighborhood of identical bungalows, sheltering and safe, that nonetheless offers no dearth of adventure. It is a childhood of sun-splashed days ringing with laughter and the carefree clamor of children at play. It is a childhood populated by caring friends, who share earnest secrets, plot harmless schemes, and make tolerable the beautiful and baffling travails of growing up. But it is also a childhood touched by grief and disquiet, now and again intruded upon by death and departure and the perplexities of the adult world. These are quiet, evocative stories, written in a candid, deceptively straightforward manner, from which one emerges, after reading, with a wistful smile of recognition and a small tug in the heart for the days gone by.
-RHONA LOPA MACASAET

There is that indescribable time of day in the mind’s eye—that golden light in memory when it conjures what is not yet dark but also not quite light. It casts a sheen above all things, causing them to glisten and glow. In this light, you can see an individual drop of water, or the symmetry in the veining in leaves. The heart lurches, in reverie, understands that everything remains the same, the endlessness and ruthless of time passing through all things; and yet everything happens differently to each human being. The writer stands in the precipice of this moment, thrilled at what can be found in the tension between past and present. Here, in Gem Deveras Mañosa’s tender and lyrical Under the Aratiles Tree, she deftly and swiftly recreates that light—traipsing all over memory, illuminating dark corners of childhood, puberty, friendships, love and family, applying contrast, giving us that glimmer of joy and recognition; allowing her to see, and us as readers, a glimpse of this eternal time. Do you not remember? Each piece seems to ask. That moment when you changed? When you learned “something?” When the world changed? Everything is past, is it not? The pragmatist asks us. No, it is not. In writing, through writing, everything is present.
-RICA BOLIPATA SANTOS

Gem Deveras Mañosa’s stories are sharp and touching, funny and poignant, always alive, even magical. The people in this world are both unique and familiar. They introduce you to what seems like a world of their own—in a village of military officers and their families a few decades ago—but you feel very welcome and even wish you were with them there, relishing lives that surprise you at every turn.
-ROFEL BRION