Boontakorn is fourteen when he begins his flight to freedom by swimming across the Mekong River to Thailand. Reunited with his father in a refugee camp there, he is suspended between the past and present, between memories of his mother and sister who did not survive their journey and the secret social order of the overcrowded camp, where matchmakers cluck over his father and try to find a wife to cook for him. Eventually, Boontakorn and his father make their way to America.

Land of Smiles

Huo, T.C.

Penguin Books

2000

2003.500.423