When Heaven and Earth Changed Places: A Vietnamese Woman's Journey from War to Peace - Hardcover

Hayslip, Le Ly; Wurts, Jay

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385247583 ISBN 13: 9780385247580

Publisher: Doubleday, 1989

Synopsis

It is said that in war heaven and earth change places not once, but many times.When Heaven and Earth Changed Places is the haunting memoir of a girl on the verge of womanhood in a world turned upside down. The youngest of six children in a close-knit Buddhist family, Le Ly Hayslip was twelve years old when U.S. helicopters langed in Ky La, her tiny village in central Vietnam. As the government and Viet Cong troops fought in and around Ky La, both sides recruited children as spies and saboteurs. Le Ly was one of those children.

Before the age of sixteen, Le Ly had suffered near-starvation, imprisonment, torture, rape, and the deaths of beloved family members—but miraculously held fast to her faith in humanity. And almost twenty years after her escape to Ameica, she was drawn inexorably back to the devastated country and family she left behind. Scenes of this joyous reunion are interwoven with the brutal war years, offering a poignant picture of vietnam, then and now, and of a courageous woman who experienced the true horror of the Vietnam War—and survived to tell her unforgettable story.

About this title

Review:

"One of the most important books of Vietnamese American and Vietnam War literature. . . . Moving, powerful." --Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer

"Should not be missed by anyone. . . . No one who reads it will ever be able to think about the Vietnam War in quite the same way again." --The Washington Post

"A wonderful, wondrous book by a remarkable woman." --Amy Tan, author of The Valley of Amazement

"Touching and illuminating . . . A searing and human account." --The New York Times Book Review

"Riveting and historic. . . . Engrossing and beautifully told. . . . Impossible to put down."--San Francisco Chronicle

About the Author:

Phung Le Ly Hayslip was born in Vietnam in 1950. She is the author of two memoirs--When Heaven and Earth Changed Places and Child of War, Woman of Peace--which were adapted into the film Heaven and Earth by Oliver Stone. Since 1986, she has helped rebuild her motherland through the two charitable organizations she established. Her efforts now focus exclusively on supporting the orphanages she founded in Vietnam.

Jay Wurts, an Air Guard pilot during the Vietnam War, has written and edited a variety of books.

www.lelyhayslip.wix.com/gratitude
www.jaywurts.com

About this edition

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0385247583
• ISBN 13: 9780385247580
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1