Inside Out & Back Again

It's the end of the long Vietnam War and Ha and her family live in Vietnam. It's a beautiful place, despite the war going on all around them, with delicious food and lush gardens. Ha does brilliant work in school and she has a wonderful, close-knit family. It's a small Eden in the midst of the terrible war.

Then the family cannot put things off any longer; the country they love is collapsing and they must leave Vietnam. The family escapes on a packed boat and is taken in by a cowboy in the American South and life becomes truly surreal for Ha.

A wonderful book that is deeply sad and wildly hopeful.