Song of Saigon: One Woman's Journey to Freedom [Hardcover]

Anh Vu Sawyer (Author), Pam Proctor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2003

In the spring of 1975, as war spread across South Vietnam and her country stood on the brink of collapse, Anh Vu, a young medical student, faced the most terrifying ordeal of her life. Her only hope was to pray for the seemingly impossible: escape. Here, in vivid and often wrenching detail, Anh tells the dramatic story of how her faith helped her persevere. From the vision that emboldened her to defy a curfew to the chance discovery that kept optimism alive, she recounts how she led her family on a harrowing -- and miraculous -- exodus to freedom. Through her eyes we learn what it's like to be a Vietnamese immigrant in the U.S.: the struggles and triumphs, the rude awakenings, and the unimagined blessings... An extraordinary testament, Song of Saigon shows us that even in the midst of unspeakable tragedy it is possible to find peace and joy within. Book jacket.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This is the poignant, well-told story of Sawyer, who, at the age of 20, fled her native Vietnam just as the North Vietnamese stood poised to capture Saigon. Anh Sawyer tells of her harrowing escape, along with throngs of other panicked Vietnamese, through the American Embassy and onto a boat overcrowded with other refugees. But her account begins with the colorful history of her family, starting with her grandfather's conversion to Christianity, and the history of Vietnam, including previous occupations by various countries. Sawyer's Vietnam is in constant turmoil; inhabitants are in fear for their lives and the lives of family and friends. Her Christian faith keeps her strong throughout the ordeal, but she finds that Americans can also be terrifying, for instance when an American holds a gun to her father's head inside the American Embassy in Saigon. The author and her entire family are adopted by a Christian family in Illinois, and she is sent to college, where she lives like a normal young American. But after her marriage to a fellow student, Philip Sawyer, she finds life in America disappointing, until her faith in God restores her strength. Joining a missionary group, Sawyer returns to Vietnam-something she had vowed never to do-after an absence of nearly two and a half decades, and finds the return intimidating at first, with a frightening encounter with a customs official. But after reuniting with the people of her homeland, she is soon comforted by finding her former church. This is a moving story, and thanks partly to the skill of Proctor (coauthor of Willard Scott's The Joy of Living), readers will stay with it to the end.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Sawyer's harrowing memoirs chronicle her Vietnamese childhood and narrow escape from Saigon in 1975. Struggling to survive during the long years of civil war, the Vu's lived a precarious existence caught amid and between the French, the Americans, and the Communists. As Saigon fell around them, Sawyer and her family miraculously managed to escape via one of the last helicopters to leave the American embassy. Reaching back into her past, she vividly recalls her family's richly textured history in Vietnam and their difficult transition to American life. Throughout her ordeals, Anh, a devout Christian, was sustained by both her family and her unwavering faith in God. Returning to Vietnam on a humanitarian mission 25 years later, she was able to reconcile the past with the present in a suitably poignant fashion. A stirring testament to the tenacity of the human spirit. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: FaithWords; First Edition edition (February 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446529087
• ISBN-13: 978-0446529082
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.1 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,309,409 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What an Awesome Song!, February 7, 2003

By 

Fafa Demasio (New York City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Song of Saigon: One Woman's Journey to Freedom (Hardcover)

SONG OF SAIGON is Anh Vu Sawyer's incredible story and song of war, peace, survival, adventure, love, faith, legacy, and miracles.

As a young girl, Sawyer and her family manage to narrowly escape from Saigon to the United States during the Vietnam War. The story continues with her life in the U.S. to the present day. Sawyer's narrative includes fascinating stories of relatives and other people instrumental in her family's history. There are special people like her grandfather Tieu. He overcomes an opium addiction to become a man of strong Christian faith, high respect within his community, and a loving father, husband, and family relative. Grandfather Tieu leaves a legacy of faith to his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. This legacy sustains Sawyer and her family in their most trying times.

Authors Sawyer and Pam Proctor skillfully take you to the vivid locales of Vietnam, the Philippines, and the U.S. With each chapter, I felt as if I were living in the moment and time of the story.

While reading SONG OF SAIGON, I started to make a mental list of friends with whom to share this special story. You'll find yourself doing the same.

Fafa Demasio

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprise pleasure, March 18, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Song of Saigon: One Woman's Journey to Freedom (Hardcover)

I received this book in audiotape form. I expected a tale of harrowing bravery of Ahn and her family's escape from war-torn Vietnam, but was unprepared for it to be so spiritually uplifting at the same time. While I realized that many churches had sponsored Vietnamese into their communities I never thought much about how the families came to be in the U.S. or that they might have been raised Christian in Vietnam. This book was a history lesson and inspirational at the same time.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful reading, April 7, 2003

By 

Karleen Curlee "karleen39" (Fullerton, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Song of Saigon: One Woman's Journey to Freedom (Hardcover)

As I read Song of Saigon, I felt very privileged to be able to share Anh Vu Sawyer's life story of her adventurous spirit and tenacity in face of many obstacles and hardships. Her life is a definite testimony to what God can do - and in a mighty way. While this book recounts many of her personal difficulties in Viet Nam and in America, the title is aptly chosen: Anh Vu Sawyer's life is a song of joy, a refining through adversity. This is a book that is compelling in such a way that it cannot be easily put down; it will probably be a book that I will not soon forget. What an inspiration she is for all of the rest of us! (And the writing is beautiful as well.)