Join us at Kinokuniya New York for a special author conversation with Mae Coyiuto and Clare Osongco, celebrating their novels Goodbye and Everything After and Unfinished Business!
In this engaging discussion, the two authors will explore their writing journeys, the inspiration behind their stories, and the themes that shape their work. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from both authors and connect with fellow readers at this exciting literary event!
About the Authors
Mae Coyiuto is a Chinese-Filipino writer, born and raised in the Philippines. Mae earned her BA in Psychology from Pomona College and her Master’s Degree in Writing for Young Adults/Children from The New School. If she’s not writing, she’s usually fangirling over Beyoncé, tennis, Gilmore Girls, or all of the above. She currently lives in Manila.
Clare Osongco is a biracial Filipino American author living in Los Angeles who likes to write about falling in love, messy family relationships, and ghosts (real or figurative, sometimes both). She is the author of Midnights With You.
Synopsis
Goodbye and Everything After
It’s been five years since Nika’s beloved father passed away, but her family has never fully grieved. They don’t speak of him much at all, except on the anniversary of his death.
Whenever they visit her father’s grave, Nika’s superstitious mother still insists on practicing pagpag, a Filipino belief that you can never go directly home after attending a funeral—or risk the spirit of the departed following you back home.
But when her mom’s new fiancé suddenly shows up at the cemetery for this year’s memorial for her dad, she furiously walks out, breaking the pagpag superstition. The next day, she finds herself face-to-face with the ghost of her dead father. . . and Nika’s the only one who can see him.
As she spends time reconnecting with her dad’s ghost, Nika learns about her parents’ past and how they started dating back in high school. And when she starts to fall for her neighbor Seph and accidentally re-creates memories of her parents’ love story with him, her dad’s spirit slowly becomes more solid and alive. Fearing that she’ll lose her dad again, Nika makes it her mission to find a way to make her dad stay permanently, no matter what the cost.
Unfinished Business
A few months ago, Ruby Ocampo’s mother, Adela, died at her desk at work. Now, lost and driven by a misplaced sense of obligation, Ruby’s taken a job at the megacorporation where Adela worked for decades—and, to her horror, she discovers her mother’s ghost is trapped in the company Slack.
Ruby has never lived up to her mother’s expectations in life, but to set her free, she’ll have to resolve Adela’s unfinished business. She makes a list of all the ways she could live more like her mother would have wanted, covering everything from her stunted career to her love life (#5 on the list: date someone in a higher tax bracket!). Soon her quest to free Adela gets Ruby entangled with two men at the office who might be able to help: the estranged childhood friend her mom never approved of—who’s the only one she can confide in about this supernatural crisis—and the hot but vaguely sinister junior executive who’s been paying her a confusing amount of attention.
In order to give her mom a chance at the afterlife, Ruby must address her shortcomings one by one—and reevaluate her inherited ideas about love, work, and what’s truly important along the way.