An extraordinary cross-cultural memoir about two refugee families--one Vietnamese, one Cambodian--"adopted" by an American family living in Tuscany. In 1979, Thekla Clark and her husband John, Americans living in a small village outside of Florence, decide to "adopt" an ethnically Chinese refugee family from Vietnam. The Du Caus--Tuyen and his wife Trinh, and their severely malnourished son Bo--arrive sickly and dazed after time spent in Vietnamese refugee camps. Less than a year later, the Clarks offer a home to the four surviving members of a Cambodian family. Sary Khul and her three children, Samreth, Kilen, and Houssara, come with everything they own: some clothing, a wooden mortar and pestle, and a Bible written in Cambodian. After their arrival in Italy, the members of both families, young and old, struggle with living in an unfamiliar culture and making sense of their grief-filled pasts. As they learn--incredibly--to communicate in Italian, their personal histories unfold. They share their individual sagas--of seeing the dead body of a small child before it was tossed out of a refugee-packed boat, of learning to barter in the squalid refugee camps, of being force-marched from their homes by the Khmer Rouge--as well as stories of life before war. Out of this unusual multicultural group, living in a large, twelfth-century house in the Tuscan countryside, a wonderful community emerges. Children in Exile is Thekla Clark's memoir of this remarkable experience.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Four years after the end of the Vietnam War, an American couple living in Italy give shelter to two Vietnamese refugees and their malnourished infant son. They are soon joined by a family of four Cambodians fleeing from the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge. "I suppose I wanted to be good," says the author of Children in Exile. With honesty, courage, and warmth, she describes their arrival and acculturation, her mistakes and successes. Inevitably there are misunderstandings; for example, she is unaware of the violent 1,000-year-old enmity between Cambodians and Vietnamese that initially causes the new arrivals to distrust each other.
Soon each becomes a vivid individual. It is only when the author has settled them into the lovely, rambling, old Tuscan villa that she begins to share their stories. This gives great poignancy to the sufferings of individuals whom we have begun to know. The book's celebration of the strength of the human spirit is inspiring on both sides--the generosity of the author and the indestructible morality of the refugees. When the teenage Samreth, who survived on his wits through four years of Khmer Rouge brutality, asks if an advertisement on Italian TV is true and learns that it probably isn't, he is disgusted: "What was the point of lying if your life didn't depend on it?" This book obliges one to consider what is truly important in life. --John Stevenson
From Publishers Weekly
In an affecting memoir told with humor, modesty and brevity, Clark relates how she and her husband opened their home to two refugee families from Cambodia and Vietnam. Expatriate Americans living in Italy, the Clarks were appalled by America's involvement in Southeast Asia and decided on impulse to redress what they saw as the wrongs of foreign policy in a very personal way. In 1979, they successfully overcame bureaucratic red tape and offered a home to the ethnically Chinese Du Cau familyAhusband, wife and badly malnourished babyAfrom Vietnam. A year later they took in a second family, a Cambodian mother and three of her surviving children. Having adjusted to Italian culture, the Clarks weren't overly worried, but unexpected issues cropped up, whether the harsh first introduction to winter or a distaste for milk. But more decisive than any cultural differences are the differences in experience. Clark describes in gripping detail the suffering of the Cambodian family under the terrifying regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, and the diverse ways survivors came to terms with their tragic past. The children were enrolled in the local school, began to learn Italian and English, and the parents began the process of building new lives. As Clark writes, her book "deals with our education as well as theirs." A compassionate observer of these war-damaged people, Clark (Wystan & Chester), successfully conveys an inspiring story of the unselfish goodness and the abysmal evil encompassed by humanity.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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