Jenalyn

Marianne Villanueva

Vagabondage Press LLC

About this ebook

Seventeen-year-old Jenalyn dreams of a better life. From the vantage point of her home island of Cebu, in the Philippines, America looks like a haven, a place where poverty and hardship can be left behind. When Jenalyn attracts the attention of a much older American man, she and her family assume the rest of her life will be happy. But Jenalyn is unaware of the secret he hides, and the unexpected fate that awaits her.

JENALYN explores, with unflinching exactitude, the interplay of hope and delusion in the mind of a young woman who aches only to break free.

About the author

Marianne Villanueva is the author of the short story collections Ginseng and Other Tales From Manila, Mayor of the Roses, and The Lost Language. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Stanford University Creative Writing Program, the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, and the California Arts Council. Her work has been widely anthologized and has appeared in many literary journals, including The Threepenny Review, ZYZZYVA, The Asian American Literary Review, J Journal, Juked, the New Orleans Review, and Our Own Voice. "Jenalyn" is her first published novella.