The Beginning of Leaving - Digital

Digital copy of The Beginning of Leaving by Elsa Valmidiano

“In this stunning tour de force, Elsa Valmidiano takes us on a magical, travel-filled journey and mining of the self, spanning decades, continents and generations. It is an excavation filled with reconciliation, grief, epiphanies, and longing, touching on Filipino culture and displacement, reproduction, colonialism, and generational trauma, along with the joys of family. Her book bears witness to the personal and political implications of digging deep. Valmidiano implores us to ‘stop to listen to inhale it in.’ Her prose and poetry shimmer with intensity and brilliance, like a mythical lullaby, urging us to lean in.”

—Juanita E. Mantz, author of Tales of an Inland Empire Girl and Portrait of a Deputy Public Defender, or how I became a punk rock lawyer

“‘I cannot see the beginning nor the end of where we are heading,’ writes Valmidiano. And yet she guides us with a sure hand through a fascinating exploration of family, body, and memory, showing us along the way that the connections we make between the disparate locations and circumstances of our individual lives can bring us closer to the collective, closer to belonging, closer to the idea of home."

—Veronica Montes, author of The Conquered Sits at the Bus Stop, Waiting and Benedicta Takes Wing