Vietnam Families

Saigon, November 1978. Under the cover of darkness, a desperate family leaves home and friends, hoping to escape the harsh regime of Communist Vietnam. Their goal is to reunite with the four oldest children sent ahead to the United States, but first they must evade ruthless communist patrols.

Identical twins Isabella and Hà were born in Vietnam and raised on opposite sides of the world, each knowing little about the other’s existence, until they were reunited as teenagers, against all odds. The twins were born in Nha Trang, Vietnam, in 1998, where their mother struggled to care...

The perfect complement to the exquisitely wrought novels Ru and Mãn, Canada Reads winner Kim Thúy returns with Vi, exploring the lives, loves and struggles of Vietnamese refugees as they reinvent themselves in new lands. The daughter of an enterprising mother and a wealthy, spoiled father who...

It began like the genealogical search of so many families to find out more about the relatives who came before them. It led to the surprising discovery of the stories of family members spanning eight generations who each served in the conflict of their era from the War of Independence through Vietnam. Through this book’s masterfully re-created veterans’ stories, blending documented historical research with his gift for storytelling, author Armand Kinslow breathes life into his humble quest to know more about his ancestors and to now promise that They Shall Not Be Forgotten.

A woman is pulled into a love affair with a radical activist, unknowingly echoing her family’s dangerous past and risking the foundations of her future in this electrifying novel. “An exhilarating novel of star-crossed romances and radical politics, with writing so evocative I swear I could...

A 1960s teen pop group determined to conquer the music world must contend with the cost of fame—and a ghost with a grisly past—in this riveting family story from the New York Times bestselling author of The Black Kids. “My favorite kind of read: epic and immersive, riding the line between...

A powerful memoir of resilience, friendship, family, and food from the acclaimed chefs behind the award-winning Hy Vong Vietnamese restaurant in Miami. Through powerful narrative, archival imagery, and 20 Vietnamese recipes that mirror their story, Mango & Peppercorns is a unique contribution to...

Published for the 40th anniversary of the final days of the Vietnam War, this is the suspenseful and moving tale of how John P. Riordan, an assistant manager of Citibank's Saigon branch, devised a daring plan to save 106 Vietnamese from the dangers of the Communist takeover.

Sie ist dreißig Jahre alt und heißt Kiều, so wie das Mädchen im berühmtesten Werk der vietnamesischen Literatur. Doch sie nennt sich lieber Kim, weil das einfacher ist für ihre Freunde in Berlin. 1968 waren ihre Eltern aus Vietnam nach Deutschland gekommen. Für das, was sie zurückgelassen haben, hat sich die Journalistin nie interessiert. Im Gegenteil: Oft hat sie sich eine Familie gewünscht, die nicht erst deutsch werden muss, sondern es einfach schon ist. Bis zu jener Facebook-Nachricht. Sie stammt von ihrem Onkel, der seit seiner Flucht in Kalifornien lebt.

The publication of Jarhead launched a new career for Anthony Swofford, earning him accolades for its gritty and unexpected portraits of the soldiers who fought in the Gulf War. It spawned a Hollywood movie. It made Swofford famous and wealthy. It also nearly killed him. Now with the same...

Zazoo, almost 14, is Vietnamese by birth but feels entirely French. She lives with her adoptive grandfather, who brought her form Vietnam to his village in France when she was just two years old. Life with Grand-Pierre has always been filled with poetry and shared adventure, following the predictable rhythms of the season. Then one misty October morning, a boy on a bicycle rides into Ago's small French village and asks a question from which many stories begin to unfold.

Maine, 1969. After losing her parents in a car accident, aspiring artist Annalisa Mancuso lives with her grandmother and their large Italian family in the stifling factory town of Payton Mills. Inspired by her mother, whose own artistic dreams disappeared in a damaged marriage, Annalisa is dedicated only to painting. Closed off to love, and driven as much by her innate talent as she is the disillusionment of her past, Annalisa just wants to come into her own.

Beloved TV host Bill Geist pens a reflective memoir of his incredible summers spent in the heart of America in this New York Times bestseller. Before there was "tourism" and souvenir ashtrays became "kitsch," the Lake of the Ozarks was a Shangri-La for middle-class Midwestern families on...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Deval Patrick, “an inspirational figure guided by optimism and hope who presaged the rise of President Obama” (The Boston Globe), recounts his extraordinary journey from the South Side of Chicago to the governorship of...

Although he's fighting in a war he never asked to join, Len suffers a severe head wound. No one thinks he'll survive, but he does, and he returns home to his loving wife, Luanna. Once back home, he learns to talk, walk, be self-sufficient, and even graduates from college. But nightmares of the war still haunt Len. Years later, seeking closure, he visits the Vietnam War Memorial to pay tribute to his brothers who died. But for some reason, none of their names are listed. Now, Len must find out if the fate of his comrades is how he remembers, or if something else happened altogether.

Ha-Le Thai knew that escaping Vietnam for freedom in a cramped, leaking boat would not be easy. She imagined that building a new life in Australia, from little more than a hope and a dream, would stretch her courage and strength to its limits. But the warrior and refugee never guessed that her biggest challenge of all would be motherhood. A product of two cultures, Ha-Le’s daughter is educated, confident, and excited to introduce her Australian boyfriend to the family.

The experience of the Vietnam War is almost impossible to grasp - the fear, smell, pain, and camaraderie. Boys were turned into men, men were transformed into soldiers, and then from soldiers to warriors. These warriors had wives who shared in their transformations. Some marriages were strengthened, while for others men and their families were left emotionally and spiritually battered. Focusing in on a singular company’s experience of war and its eventual homecoming, Andrew Wiest discusses the shared experience of combat and both the darkness and resiliency of war’s aftermath.

Nineteen-year-old Jesse McGowan kills to stay alive. As a Marine gunner in Vietnam, he knows the gun team is the heart of every battle. Meet the gun team. They serve in a place called Con Thien, “The Hill of Angels”. Learn what gives them the courage to fight another day. Will Jesse prove worthy? Will the gun team? Will they survive their 13-month tour? In her war-torn country, Tweet, a Vietnamese nurse who believes in democracy, works to save American soldiers. With war’s end, there is no one to protect her or her young daughter.

The story of the indomitable American POWs who endured "Alcatraz," the Hanoi prison camp where North Vietnam locked up its most dangerous and subversive prisoners, and the wives who fought to bring them home. As these men suffered in Hanoi, their wives launched an extraordinary campaign that would ultimately spark the POW/MIA movement. When the survivors finally returned, one would receive the Medal of Honor, another became a U.S. Senator, and a third still serves in Congress.

In the wake of her mother's death, Jessica Pearce Rotondi uncovers boxes of letters, declassified CIA reports, and newspaper clippings that bring to light a family ghost: her uncle Jack, who disappeared during the CIA-led "Secret War" in Laos in 1972. The letters lead her across Southeast Asia in search of the truth that has eluded her family for decades. On the night of March 29, 1972, Jack's plane vanishes over the mountains bordering Vietnam. The crash eerily echoes the one Jack's father, Ed Pearce, survived in World War II, when Ed parachuted out of the plane before being captured.