For Viet Nguyen, the only thing worse than rules are the people who enforce them. This may not be the best attitude to have in a society that punishes dissent with death. A rebellious teenager is often the main character of young adult fiction, but what makes Viet particularly interesting is that he challenges a system that borders on genocide. Communist tanks advance through Viet s Saigon neighborhood when he is fourteen years old, and overtake the Presidential Palace as American helicopters retreat over the South China Sea. During the frantic evacuation, the American Embassy isn t able to destroy secret files containing the names of South Vietnamese intelligence officers. Viet s father is one of these officers. Within days, the city is infiltrated by communist soldiers who take over public buildings and spies who move into local neighborhoods. To survive, his family must keep a low profile. Viet s life was better during the war. With the Americans gone, he has little hope for freedom and must watch his every step. But his rebellious spirit gets the upper hand and he is arrested in the black market, becoming one of more than a million people in labor camps spread across the jungles of Vietnam. Viet s captors have a dream. When everyone on earth is under their control, they believe, we will have reached Communist Heaven. Many of the prisoners are ex-soldiers. Others are religious leaders, academics and anyone who might provide leadership against the new regime. Tens of thousands of these prisoners die of starvation, malaria and physical beatings. Viet is determined not to be one of them. He uses the same daring that led to his arrest to create a chance to break free. Based on the true story of Viet Nguyen, this novel is about a teenager who makes some mistakes and faces the consequences. To know freedom, he must not only escape from prison, but also from his country."

Life under communism is cruel and inhumane. Commit the smallest political infraction, and the secret police will arrest you. The only ray of hope is the West, but getting out from communism is difficult. Communist countries have a “Berlin Wall” around them. It is a crime to escape by crossing the border illegally, and anyone caught is beaten and imprisoned, sometimes even shot. I was eighteen, and I was living in hell. However, I would rather have died than keep living as a communist slave. This is my story of what happened and how I reached freedom.

He was born in the warzone. The invasions of the North Vietnamese Communists had caused total destruction throughout the entirety of his parents village when he was just four years of age. He had witnessed the killings and the brutality of the evil Communists throughout his childhood. After the Fall of Saigon, his family had suffered great hardship from the Vietcong. It was clear that there was no future for the young generation; his family had determined to find ways for their son to escape the Communist regime. He had tried numerous times to escape with no success; nevertheless, God had protected him and he did not get killed or caught by the Vietcong. He finally escaped successfully on his eleventh attempt and his boat was so lucky to get rescued by a German ship in the unforgiving ocean. He settled in the United States of America after years of long waiting in the refugee camp. He has found the life of freedom and dignity in America from the hell of the evil Communists. He has appreciated so much about his new country harboring him and he was determined to serve and help protect the freedom and democracy for his new motherland. He joined the United States Navy and became a sailor, serving multiple deployments. He was very happy and dreamed to become a Navy jet fighter pilot someday. Unfortunately, he got injured while performing his duty. His medical separation from the US Navy saddened his heart and soul. Now he, as a disable veteran, had to fight for survival for himself and his family with two small daughters. He had to return to college and further his education. He overcame all major obstacles and impediments mentally and physically; he graduated from a Doctor of Pharmacy program from Nova Southeastern University. Since then, he has been working as a pharmacist to support his family. He was extremely happy to have another opportunity to serve his patients, his community. However, his old injury continues to aggravate him over the years; nonetheless, he continues to fight to support his family and serve the people he loves.

One of the Ten Best Books of the Year, Washington Post Book World One of the Los Angeles Times’ Favorite Books of the Year One of the Top Ten National Books of 2008, Portland Oregonian A 2009 Honor Book of the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association “Few books have combined the historical scope and the literary skill to give the ­foreign reader a sense of events from a Vietnamese perspective. . . . Now we can add Andrew Pham’s Eaves of Heaven to this list of indispensable books.” —New York Times Book Review “Searing . . . vivid–and harrowing . . . Here is war and life through the eyes of a Vietnamese everyman.” —Seattle Times Once wealthy landowners, Thong Van Pham’s family was shattered by the tumultuous events of the twentieth century: the French occupation of Indochina, the Japanese invasion during World War II, and the Vietnam War. Told in dazzling chapters that alternate between events in the past and those closer to the present, The Eaves of Heaven brilliantly re-creates the trials of everyday life in Vietnam as endured by one man, from the fall of Hanoi and the collapse of French colonialism to the frenzied evacuation of Saigon. Pham offers a rare portal into a lost world as he chronicles Thong Van Pham’s heartbreaks, triumphs, and bizarre reversals of fortune, whether as a South Vietnamese soldier pinned down by enemy fire, a prisoner of the North Vietnamese under brutal interrogation, or a refugee desperately trying to escape Vietnam after the last American helicopter has abandoned Saigon. This is the story of a man caught in the maelstrom of twentieth-century politics, a gripping memoir told with the urgency of a wartime dispatch by a writer of surpassing talent.

Seventeen years ago, Sepha Stephanos fled the Ethiopian Revolution for a new start in the United States. Now he finds himself running a failing grocery store in a poor African-American section of Washington, D.C., his only companions two fellow African immigrants who share his bitter nostalgia and longing for his home continent. Years ago and worlds away Sepha could never have imagined a life of such isolation. As his environment begins to change, hope comes in the form of a friendship with new neighbors Judith and Naomi, a white woman and her biracial daughter. But when a series of racial incidents disturbs the community, Sepha may lose everything all over again. Watch a QuickTime interview with Dinaw Mengestu about this book.

On April 30, 1975, the Hanoi government of North Vietnam took control over the South. South Vietnamese, particularly "intellectuals" and those thought to have been associated with the previous regime, underwent terrible punishment, persecution and "re-education." Seeking their freedom, thousands of South Vietnamese took to the sea in rickety boats, often with few supplies, and faced the dangers of nature, pirates, and starvation. While the sea and its danger claimed many lives, those who made it to the refugee camps still faced struggle and hardships in their quest for freedom. Here are collected the narratives of nineteen men and women who survived the ordeal of escape by sea. Today, they live in the United States as students, professors, entrepreneurs, scientists, and craftspeople who have chosen to tell the stories of their struggles and their triumph. Each narrative is accompanied by biographical information. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.