Name: When Heaven and Earth Changed Places
Price: 17.00 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Le Ly Hayslip, Jay Wurts
ISBN: 9780525431848

“One of the most important books of Vietnamese American and Vietnam War literature…Moving, powerful.” —Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sympathizer

In these pages, Le Ly Hayslip—just twelve years old when U.S. helicopters landed in her tiny village of Ky La—shows us the Vietnam War as she lived it. Initially pressed into service by the Vietcong, Le Ly was captured and imprisoned by government forces. She found sanctuary at last with an American contractor and ultimately fled to the United States. Almost twenty years after her escape, Le Ly found herself inexorably drawn back to the devastated country and loved ones she’d left behind, and returned to Vietnam in 1986. Scenes of this joyous reunion are interwoven with the brutal war years, creating an extraordinary portrait of the nation, then and now—and of one courageous woman who held fast to her faith in humanity.

First published in 1989, When Heaven and Earth Changed Places was hailed as an instant classic. Now, some two decades later, this indispensable memoir continues to be one of our most important accounts of a conflict we must never forget.

It is said that in war heaven and earth change places not once, but many times. When Heaven and Earth Changed Places is the haunting memoir of a girl on the verge of womanhood in a world turned upside down. The youngest of six children in a close-knit Buddhist family, Le Ly Hayslip was twelve years old when U.S. helicopters langed in Ky La, her tiny village in central Vietnam. As the government and Viet Cong troops fought in and around Ky La, both sides recruited children as spies and saboteurs. Le Ly was one of those children.

Before the age of sixteen, Le Ly had suffered near-starvation, imprisonment, torture, rape, and the deaths of beloved family members—but miraculously held fast to her faith in humanity. And almost twenty years after her escape to Ameica, she was drawn inexorably back to the devastated country and family she left behind. Scenes of this joyous reunion are interwoven with the brutal war years, offering a poignant picture of vietnam, then and now, and of a courageous woman who experienced the true horror of the Vietnam War—and survived to tell her unforgettable story.

“One of the most important books of Vietnamese American and Vietnam War literature. . . . Moving, powerful.” —Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sympathizer

“Should not be missed by anyone. . . . No one who reads it will ever be able to think about the Vietnam War in quite the same way again.” —The Washington Post

“A wonderful, wondrous book by a remarkable woman.” —Amy Tan, author of The Valley of Amazement

“Touching and illuminating . . . A searing and human account.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Riveting and historic. . . . Engrossing and beautifully told. . . . Impossible to put down.”—San Francisco Chronicle

When Heaven and Earth Changed Places

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By Le Ly Hayslip and Jay Wurts

By Le Ly Hayslip

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