Thuận

"An abandoned package is discovered in the Paris Metro: the subway workers suspect it's a terrorist bomb. A Vietnamese woman sitting nearby, her son asleep on her shoulder, waits and begins to reflect on her life, from her constrained childhood in communist Hanoi, to a long period of study in Leningrad during the Gorbachev period, and finally to the Parisian suburbs where she now teaches English. Through everything runs her passion for Thụy, the...

Inspired by the tales of four grandmothers-Thuan Le Elston's and her husband's-Rendezvous at the Altar: From Vietnam to Virginia traces Anne's southern upbringing to her Mad Men-like married life; Kim's family as they survive French colonialism and the Vietnam War; Mary's transformations through the Great Depression and two marriages; and Ty's migration from Hanoi businesswoman to Arizona matriarch. Through a mother's journal to her children and the...