The Last Time I Saw Mother - Tapa dura

A woman is summoned home to the Phillipines by her aging mother, who, along with her aunt and her cousin, reveals the startling truth about her family's past through a series of moving, magical stories. A first novel.

her never writes. So when the mail arrived that day, I was not expecting to find a letter from her. There was no warning."

Between generations of women, there are always secrets--relationships kept hidden, past events obscured, true feelings not spoken. But sometimes the truth is so primal it must be told. Now, with haunting lyricism and emotional clarity, Arlene Chai has written an exquisite novel about a family of women who break their silence. At the center of The Last Time I Saw Mother is the singular story of a woman who suddenly learns she is not who she thinks she is.

Caridad is a wife and mother, a native of the Philippines living in Sydney, Australia. Out of the blue Caridad's mother summons her home. Although she is not ill, Thelma needs to talk to her daughter -- to  reveal a secret that has been weighing heavily on her for years.

It is a tale that Caridad in no way suspects. She stopped asking questions about the past long