If You Lived Here: A Novel [Hardcover]

Dana Sachs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 27, 2007

Forty-two-year-old Shelley Marino's desperate yearning for a child has led her to one of the only doors still open to her: foreign adoption. It is a decision that strains and ultimately shatters her relationship with her husband, Martin—the veteran of an Asian war who cannot reconcile what Shelley wants with what he knows about the world. But it unites her with Mai, who emigrated from Vietnam decades ago and has now acquired the accoutrements of the American dream in an effort to dull the memory of the tragedy that drove her from her homeland. As a powerful friendship is forged, two women embark on a life-altering journey to the world Mai left behind—to confront the stark realities of a painful past and embrace the promise of the future.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sachs revisits in her fiction debut many of the themes she explored in A House on Dream Street, her memoir about living in Vietnam in the early 1990s. The story begins in Wilmington, N.C., where Xuan Mai has built a successful Asian grocery business in the more than 20 years since she fled Hanoi. Estranged from her family in Vietnam and reluctant to form new connections in America, Mai doesn't know what to make of Shelley Marino, an American customer who asks a lot of questions about Vietnam. It turns out that Shelley is trying to adopt a Vietnamese boy. However, Shelley's husband, Martin, who has two grown sons from a previous marriage, forces Shelley to choose between him and adopting, prompting Shelley to urge Mai to accompany her to Vietnam to complete the adoption. Once there, Mai discovers a land very different from the war-torn, impoverished country she left in the late 1970s. The novel, alternating Shelley's and Mai's narration, comes alive when the setting shifts to Vietnam, revealing the author's love for the rapidly changing country. Mai's reconciliation with her past is absorbing, Shelley's story is less so, and the adoption plot line relies too heavily on bureaucratic dysfunction for its drama. (Mar.)
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From Booklist

This first novel, which reworks the territory covered in Sachs' memoir, The House on Dream Street (2000), features dual narration by a reserved Vietnamese entrepreneur and a compassionate, efficient mortician's wife as they form an unlikely friendship. After suffering through miscarriages and infertility treatments, Shelley Marino feels that, at 42, she is running out of options. When a Vietnamese child becomes available for adoption, she is disheartened to learn that her husband, Martin, who has two sons from a previous marriage, doesn't feel he has the energy or the heart to raise another child. She turns to her new friend Xuan Mai, who fled Vietnam 23 years ago after a tragic accident left her estranged from her family. Mai agrees to accompany Shelley to Vietnam, and what they find there--a vibrant culture, a stifling bureaucracy--changes them in unforeseen ways. Sachs' earnest approach to big topics, such as the Vietnam War, often falls flat; it's the small moments--the sight of blue rice fields, the sweet taste of lychees--that are affecting. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1 edition (February 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061130486
• ISBN-13: 978-0061130489
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,690,882 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful novel of love, yearning and forgiveness, March 4, 2007

By 

K. Bender "The Oxfordian" (Oxford, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: If You Lived Here: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is a beautiful novel of love, yearning and forgiveness--it is almost incidental that it also contains a gorgeous and vivid portrait of Vietnam. If you have ever yearned for a child; if you have ever done wrong and not known how to heal the wound; if you have ever crossed the boundary into a strange, new culture--then you will recognize your experience here, rendered with passion and insight.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Great American-Vietnamese Novel, March 3, 2007

By 

P. Kennedy "[e-mail]" (boston) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: If You Lived Here: A Novel (Hardcover)

This novel is one of the few to explore the topic of foreign adoptin -- a story-line rife with dramatic potential. Sachs brilliantly shows how two women negotiate their blended identities: the Vietnamese shopkeeter who has transplanted herself in America, and the American woman who is about to mother to a Vietnamese child. Vibrating in the background is the complicated history between the two countries. A bravura performance for a first=time novelist.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lyrical and captivating - a dramatic work of art., March 13, 2007

By 

Allison Martin "Book Reviewer" (comeunity.com) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: If You Lived Here: A Novel (Hardcover)

Ten years in the making, "If You Lived Here" by Dana Sachs is the gripping and lyrical story of the healing friendship between two very different women who travel together to Vietnam, assisting one another on their personal quests. One of the women, Xuan Mai, is a single Vietnamese-American who impulsively fled her family and a poverty-stricken Vietnam 23 years ago under the impetus of an almost unbearable tragedy. The other woman, Shelly, is a married white American from North Carolina who finds herself captivated by Vietnam when her desire for a child leads there, also under very difficult circumstances. The novel twists and turns its way through their uncertain adventure, with fascinating vignettes exposing their characters and emotional experiences. Together the two women, transformed by their individual (yet shared) dramatic journeys to their families, come to their own peace in Vietnam.

In an enriching juxtaposition, the heartwarming story of these two women is interwoven with a lyrical depiction of their two shared countries, northern Vietnam and southern United States. Dana Sachs is a noted author, translator and authority on Vietnamese literature and here, as in many of her books, Vietnam itself becomes a central character. Hanoi seeps through the novel in crystal clear description and riveting poetic narratives, till readers find themselves immersed in this vibrant, many faceted city.

As Director of the Families with Children adopted from Vietnam I have read and published online a number of true life adoption stories. Unlike the reviewer above, I would say that "If You Lived Here" includes very few adoption procedures. Instead, Dana Sachs captures the strong emotions created during the ups and downs of the adoption process to propel the story forward. Dana Sach's ability to reveal the emotions and thoughts of a diverse group of characters is one of the many joys of her novel. The themes she expresses of longing for a child, forgiveness, and past experiences affecting the present are universal.

"If You Lived Here" is a dramatic work of art that will be enjoyed for many years. I highly recommend this book not only to adoptive parents or readers interested in Vietnam, but to anyone who enjoys a great story.