Punahou School tonight hosts the book launch for short story collection, "In the Company of Strangers," by Michelle Cruz Skinner.

The free event starts with a reception and book signing at 6:30 p.m., followed by a reading by Skinner at 7. It will be held in the Luke Lecture Hall at Wo International Center.

Following up on Skinner's "Balikbayan" and "Mango Seasons," "In the Company of Strangers" is a collection of 16 stories. Author R. Zamora Linmark said the book contains "deceptively simple stories... many about Filipinos many of them about Filipinos tongue-tied and alienated in the motherland, or scattered across the map of heartaches and homesickness in the company of strangers called countrymen, family, lovers."

Skinner, a Punahou School teacher, was born in Manila and raised primarily in Olongapo City in the Philippines.