After Saigon fell to communist forces in 1975 hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese people became refugees. More than 100,000 of these refugees immigrated to the U.S. with thousands settling in New Orleans through Catholic church sponsorship and purportedly drawn by a climate similar to their native country. I knew about the influx of Vietnamese refugees in general, but was previously unaware of New Orleans being a specific destination.
Things We Lost to the Water is the story of a Vietnamese refugee family who settled in New Orleans in 1978. A mother arrives with her 5 year old and infant sons, her husband chose to remain in Vietnam at the very last minute, unexpectedly leaving her to make the journey alone. The story follows the family of three from 1978 to 2005, their displacement, sacrifice, assimilation, the impact to them as individuals and as a family as they navigate forging a life for themselves in a new country (or as life in a new country forges them) all told in gorgeous prose.
This book is on the Aspen Words 2022 Longlist and Barack Obama’s 2021 summer reading list!
That Bookish Life 