Refugee Families

When a young boy asks his parents why he doesn’t have a brother or sister, his mother replies that on the day he was born, they planted an apple tree in their front yard. “The apple tree is your sister,” she says. At night, the boy wraps a blanket around his sister's trunk and during the day he shares all of his secrets with her. One day, they see helicopters in the sky and his parents tell him they must flee. But how can he leave his sister behind? Instead he digs her up and carries her away from their homeland.

Beyond the Sand and Sea is an extraordinary and inspiring book for anyone searching for pinpricks of light in the darkness. Meticulously reported over three years, it reveals the strength of a family of Somali refugees who never lost faith in America - and exposes the broken refugee resettlement system that kept that family trapped for more than two decades and has turned millions into permanent exiles.

Now in an audio edition, this acclaimed memoir tells the unforgettable story of a young boy's journey from a refugee camp in Sudan to Chicago, where his family survived on welfare. Mawi followed his father's advice to "treat people...as though they were angels sent from heaven" and realized his dream of a full-tuition scholarship to Harvard University. Updated with 14 black-and-white photos and a new epilogue.

For Hương, life in Saigon, Vietnam is mostly normal—at least, as normal as it can be while a war is going on. But when her family decides to take the last flight out of the country to build a new life in America, Hương worries about missing her home. Through new friends and old traditions, Hương learns that no matter where we go, the smell of home and the taste of love can be found anywhere, as long as we have our family.