Where Rivers Part: A Story Of My Mother's Life
- Author: Kao Kalia Yang
- Narrator: Kao Kalia Yang
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster
- Duration: 12:02:32
Synopsis
A mesmerizing and hauntingly beautiful memoir about a Hmong family’s epic journey to safety told from the perspective of the author’s incredible mother who survived, and helped her family escape, against all odds.
Born in 1961 in war-torn Laos, Tswb’s childhood was marked by the violence of America’s Secret War and the CIA recruitment of the Hmong and other ethnic minorities into the lost cause. By the time Tswb was a teenager, the US had completely vacated Laos, and the country erupted into genocidal attacks on the Hmong people, who were labeled as traitors. Fearing for their lives, Tswb and her family left everything they knew behind and fled their village for the jungle.
Perpetually on the run and on the brink of starvation, Tswb eventually crossed paths with the man who would become her future husband. Leaving her own mother behind, she joined his family at a refugee camp, a choice that would haunt her for the rest of her life. Eventually becoming a mother herself, Tswb raised her daughters in a state of constant fear and hunger until they were able to emigrate to the US, where the determined couple enrolled in high school even though they were both nearly thirty, and worked grueling jobs to provide for their children.
Now, her daughter, Kao Kalia Yang, reveals her mother’s astonishing saga with tenderness and unvarnished clarity, giving voice to the countless resilient refugees who are often overlooked as one of the essential foundations of this country. Evocative, stirring, and unforgettable, Where Rivers Part is destined to become a classic.
Chapters
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001 WhereRiversPart Open
Duration: 41s -
002 WhereRiversPart Prologue
Duration: 15min -
003 WhereRiversPart Epigraph
Duration: 08s -
004 WhereRiversPart Poem
Duration: 49s -
005 WhereRiversPart TswbsFamily
Duration: 01min -
006 WhereRiversPart ANoteonNames
Duration: 14s -
007 WhereRiversPart Part1 Ch1 BadLuckWoman
Duration: 19min -
008 WhereRiversPart Ch2 TheUnlikelySisters
Duration: 27min -
009 WhereRiversPart Ch3 LittleCucumber
Duration: 13min -
010 WhereRiversPart Ch4 AmongtheFallenFlowers
Duration: 19min -
011 WhereRiversPart Ch5 TheChineseMan
Duration: 25min -
012 WhereRiversPart Ch6 SweetEverything
Duration: 15min -
013 WhereRiversPart Ch7 AmongStrangersHeIsMyFriend
Duration: 17min -
014 WhereRiversPart Ch8 PartingGifts
Duration: 27min -
015 WhereRiversPart Ch9 Mothering
Duration: 16min -
016 WhereRiversPart Ch10 TheBaby'sArrival
Duration: 17min -
017 WhereRiversPart Ch11 TheReunion
Duration: 19min -
018 WhereRiversPart Part2 Ch12 TheMekongRiver
Duration: 22min -
019 WhereRiversPart Ch13 PapayaSalad
Duration: 34min -
020 WhereRiversPart Ch14 MonsoonStorm
Duration: 22min