Description: One Hmong family's harrowing escape from war in Laos to the uncertainty of a new home as refugees in Minnesota.
Yang's award-winning memoir of her family's harrowing escape from war in Laos is a love letter to her grandmother, a troubling portrait of the consequences of US intervention in Southeast Asia, and a glimpse into the little-seen exodus of the Hmong people, first to refugee camps in Thailand and then, for many, to new homes in Minnesota.Review Quotes: Praise for The Latehomecomer
Winner of the 2009 Minnesota Book AwardWinner of a Readers Choice Award
Winner of the 2008 Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award
An NEA Big Read selection "This is the best account of the Hmong experience I've ever read-powerful, heartbreaking, and unforgettable." --Anne Fadiman "Packed with the stuff of life." --Entertainment Weekly "Yang tells her family's story with grace; she narrates their struggles, beautifully weaving in Hmong folklore and culture." --Publishers Weekly, starred review "A natural storyteller. Yang chronicles her family's journey and draws the reader into the Hmong culture." --Library Journal, starred review "[Yang] tells her family's story with outstanding beauty and lyricism." --St. Paul Pioneer Press "Yang intimately chronicles the immigrant experience from the Hmong perspective, providing a long-overdue contribution to the history and literature of ethnic America." --Booklist "This memoir is the first of its kind to correctly chronicle the lives of [the] Hmong." --International Examiner "An ode to the thousands of Hmong families in our metro. . . . This is among the most important Minnesota books." --Metro Magazine "Splendorous. . . . [Yang] forces the reader to question memory, power, and authority in America." --Feminist Review "Yang's love and devotion to her family and the Hmong people shines on every page. . . . A necessary read about the human experience." --Hmong Times "The Latehomecomer is a wonderful journey into the very personal experiences of its author, and it is also a story about so many of us. Reading this book is about experiencing the Hmong American transformation." --Mee Moua, MN State Senator "Across jungles, refugee camps, and oceans, The Latehomecomer is a journey to the center of everything: one's fast-held understanding of home." --Cris Beam "Yang has fashioned a bittersweet and engrossing epic that is mythic in its beauty, tenderness, and power." --Honor Moore "An impressive debut by a writer with an enchanting voice, The Latehomecomer reveals all that is worth knowing about endurance, the power of a family's love, and hope in the face of desperation." --Patricia O'Toole