This is the short story collection I have finished the fastest. In three days, I got to dive into this semi-autobiographical sequel of H. Arlo Nimmo’s the Songs of Salanda, another short story collection which I hold highly and dear to my heart. Nimmo’s writing is mainly informed of experience; he wrote both fiction and nonfiction books about the people he’s met, the places he’s been, and the pleasures and tragedies he’s undergone during his years-long stay in the Sulu archipelago as part of his anthropological research. Although he’s white, his use of the English language is never difficult to read. In fact, it feels close to Philippine English. I have to mention this because writing is often misconstrued as an undertaking that needs to be done sophisticatedly in terms of style, when the challenge for writers these days is to make their works accessible to the average reader. Nimmo is also adept at blending his personal experiences with fictional events. Who knows which of the things that are happening in this book are true. The goal is for a piece of writing to grant wisdom, supply information, or simply entertain. Nimmo, through his stories which are often marked with wistfulness, achieves all of those.