Quote by Bienvenido Santos: “Memory is a kind of living. It is a way of holding onto things.”

This quote suggests that our past experiences and cherished moments continue to exist vividly within us, shaping who we are. It emphasizes memory's vital role in preserving connections and providing a sense of continuity, even when physical realities change or fade.

Written after World War II, *Scent of Apples* explored the melancholic experiences of Filipino exiles in America, grappling with displacement. Memories of home became a crucial anchor for their identity and emotional survival in a foreign land.

Filipino novelist and short story writer, born in Manila in 1911, and widely regarded as one of the finest Filipino writers in English. His fiction explored the experience of Filipinos living as strangers in America and the painful longing for homeland, drawing on his own years as an expatriate.