The gradual extinction of softness
My mother fled Cambodia and then Vietnam.  She has said very little about that period, vague stories about escaping through the forest and people dying.  Her family (the lucky ones) have been distributed far across the globe, the other half disappeared.Reading this was gripping.  I understand my mother better.  Maybe in some ways the author being 9 allowed her to talk freely about the time that is too traumatic for someone of my mother's generation.