Vietnamese-origin writer wins US National Book Award
Lai Thanh Ha, a Vietnamese American writer, has won the 2011 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, a prestigious prize in the US.
Ha’s book “Inside Out & Back Again” tells the moving story of a 10-year old girl's journey to the US in 1975.
For the ten years of her life in homeland, the girl has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of her friends close by, and the beauty of her very own papaya tree.
But when the war reaches her home, she and her family are forced to flee Saigon, and they board a ship headed toward hope in a new country.
In America, the girl discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food, the strange shape of its landscape, and the strength of her very own family.
Born in 1965, the book’s author began her hard life in the US and worked very hard to learn English and write books. She got many jobs to earn a living, but always spent a lot of time writing.
In her book, Ha recalls her memories of her father, who died during the war, and her mother who devoted her whole life working hard to raise up her six sons and three daughters.
Ha says she is writing another book about Vietnam, and expects it to be published soon.
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