New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003. dj. Hardcover first edition - The author's moving first novel, one permeated by a sense of love and wonder at the world. Back in Vietnam, her mother, a Catholic from South Vietnam, defied her family to marry a young "gangster" from North Vietnam. Later as refugees - boat people - living in the San Diego area, the young daughter escapes her father's increasing rages - and the sadness and guilt they all felt about the drowning death of their young son before they left Vietnam - by repeatedly running away- eventually attending college in the Northeast. 160 pp. ISBN: 0-375400184.