by Thi Bui
First published 2018
Thi Bui becomes a first-time mother and finds herself thinking about her own parents and their sacrifices. Her family fled Vietnam after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s, leaving behind everything they knew. Bui examines her childhood as an immigrant child while simultaneously learning what it means to care for her own baby. She explores how her parents built new lives in America after their daring escape, facing countless difficulties in an unfamiliar country. The story moves between her present experience as a new parent and her family's past struggles with displacement. Bui discovers the endless sacrifices parents make, the small unnoticed gestures of love, and the depths of unspoken devotion. She grapples with being both a parent and a child, trying to understand her own identity while caring for the next generation. Through her family's story, she examines what home means and how identity survives across borders and generations.
Genres: family, autobiography, biography-memoir, 21st-century, asian-american, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, parent-child
Setting: America, Vietnam
Period: 1970s
329 pages · Paperback · Abrams ComicArts