Grass Roof, Tin Roof (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780618145591)

In this stunning novel about a Vietnamese family resettling in the isolation of California gold country, Dao Strom investigates the myth of westward progress and the consequences of cultural displacement.

Told from multiple perspectives and interwoven with the intimate reflections of a middle child, Grass Roof, Tin Roof begins with the story of Tran, a Vietnamese writer facing government persecution, who flees her homeland during the exodus of 1975 and brings her two children to the West. Here she marries a Danish American man who has survived a different war. He promises understanding and guidance, but the psychic consequences of his past soon hinder his relationships with the family. The children, for whom the war is now a distant shadow, struggle to understand the world around them on their own terms.

In delicate, innovative prose, Strom's characters experience the collision of cultures and the spiritual aftermath of war on the most visceral level. Grass Roof, Tin Roof is a beautiful work of profundity and empathy, powerful emotion and rare insight.

Author: Dao Strom
ISBN-10: 0618145591
ISBN-13: 9780618145591
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Language: English
Published: 01/07/2003
Pages: 240
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.40w x 0.80d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 11/01/2002 pg. 130
Kirkus Reviews 12/01/2002 pg. 1729
Publishers Weekly 01/13/2003 pg. 41
New York Times 01/26/2003 pg. 24
Multicultural Review 12/01/2003 pg. 54