Where Rivers Part ; A Story of My Mother’s Life by Kao Kalia Yang
Kao Kalia Yang is back with the third book in her family trilogy, WHERE RIVERS PART; A STORY OF MY MOTHER’S LIFE.
Yang’s mother, Tswb (pronounced Chew), was born in Laos in 1961 during the Vietnam War when the CIA recruited Hmong minorities to spy on their behalf. When the US vacated Laos, the Hmong people became a target for those who considered them traitors. As a result, many Hmong fled their villages to hide in the jungle. It was a period of deprivation and constant fear. There was never enough food and families were plagued by illness and death.
When Tswb (Chew) meets Npis (pronounced Bee), she has to make a choice to flee with him and his family to the refuge camps in Thailand or stay with her own family in Laos. It’s a choice that she grieves for the rest of her life. She never sees her mother alive again.
Once in Thailand, Tswb (Chew) discovers another kind of hardship – heartsickness. It’s a grueling existence. Eventually Tswb and Npis immigrate to the United States where they work multiple jobs and long hours to provide for their children.
Yang tells her mother’s story with great empathy, recording the multiple losses and excruciating choices she had to make from a young age. WHERE RIVERS PART is the story of mothers and daughters and the extraordinary bonds between them. It’s the story of family lost and found, and the resiliency of the Hmong people.
If you have read THE LATEHOMECOMER and THE SONG POET, you won’t want to miss WHERE RIVERS PART.
This is Lin Salisbury with Superior Reviews. Listen to my author interviews on Superior Reads the fourth Thursday of the month at 7pm and the following Saturday at 6am on WTIP, 90.7 Grand Marais, MN, and at www.superiorreads.com.
