Yang’s second stellar memoir (after the The Latehomecomer) takes readers back to the mountains of Laos, to her father’s birth and childhood, through the French occupation, and finally to the turbulent war that led to the family fleeing through the jungle to a refugee camp in Thailand and ultimately landing in the American city of St. Paul. Yang writes first in the voice of her father; the second part reveals her own perspective, that of a woman learning to find words in both the language of her Hmong heritage and of her adopted country. These two points of view balance each other and the result captures the raw emotions of grief, joy, fear, and love.
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