{"product_id":"where-the-ashes-are-the-odyssey-of-a-vietnamese-family-9780803226982","title":"Where the Ashes Are: The Odyssey of a Vietnamese Family","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 family's comfortable life was destroyed. The author's father was taken prisoner and marched up the Ho Chi Minh Trail. North Vietnam's 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 author's 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, \u003ci\u003eWhere the Ashes Are\u003c\/i\u003e shows us the Vietnam War through a child's 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. \u003ci\u003eWhere the Ashes Are\u003c\/i\u003e closes with Nguyen's thoughts on being pulled between his adopted country and his homeland.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Bison Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/01\/2009\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780803226982\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 265\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.85lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.04w x 0.59d","brand":"Qui Duc Nguyen","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":36643634348188,"sku":"9780803226982","price":16.96,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_78fda157-b195-436b-9839-f69cace80cff.jpg?v=1603856985","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/where-the-ashes-are-the-odyssey-of-a-vietnamese-family-9780803226982","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}