Where The Sea Takes Us: A Vietnamese Australian Story

Description

In the 1970s and 1980s, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese families set out on perilous journeys in rickety boats to escape communist rule and seek out a better life. Kim Huynh's family was one of them. In this unique memoir, Kim traces his parents' precarious lives, from their poor villages in central and southern Vietnam, through relative affluence in Saigon, to their harrowing experiences after the American withdrawal and the fall of Saigon in 1975, which led them to a new life in Australia. As Kim explores his parents' stories, he unveils the tragedy and inner strength of ordinary Vietnamese people struggling to survive in a country beset by colonisation and ravaged by war. This gripping story is not only an invaluable piece of political history, but a moving tribute from a son to his parents.

Kim Huynh was born in Vietnam in 1977 and arrived in Australia with his family as a refugee in 1979. He lectures in political science and international relations at the Australian National University, Canberra. He won a Varuna Award for Manuscript Development in 2004.