Description
In 1968 Nguyen Qui Duc was nine years old, his father was a high-ranking civil servant in the South Vietnamese government, and his mother was a school principal. Then the Viet Cong launched their Tet offensive, and the Nguyen familys comfortable life was destroyed. The authors father was taken prisoner and marched up the Ho Chi Minh Trail. North Vietnams highest-ranking civilian prisoner, he eventually spent twelve years in captivity, composing poems in his head to maintain his sanity. Nguyen himself escaped from Saigon as North Vietnamese tanks approached in 1975. He came of age as an American teenager, going to school dances and working at a Roy Rogers restaurant, yet yearning for the homeland and parents he had to leave behind. The authors mother stayed in Vietnam to look after her mentally ill daughter. She endured poverty and reeducation until her husband was freed and the Nguyens could reunite. Intertwining these three stories, Where the Ashes Are shows us the Vietnam War through a childs eyes, privation after a Communist takeover, and the struggle of new immigrants. The author, who returned to Vietnam as an American reporter, provides a detailed portrait of the nation as it opened to the West in the early 1990s. Where the Ashes Are closes with Nguyens thoughts on being pulled between his adopted country and his homeland.
Author: Qui Duc Nguyen
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Bison Books
Published: 12/01/2009
Pages: 280
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.04w x 0.59d
ISBN: 9780803226982
Language: English
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.