-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
A Story of My Mother's Life
This powerful memoir about a Hmong family's epic journey to safety is a profound "testament to the miraculous strength of women and the indomitable resolve of the human spirit" (Cristina Henríquez, author of The Book of Unknown Americans).
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 clarity, giving voice to the countless resilient refugees who are often overlooked as one of the essential foundations of this country. "Haunting and painfully relevant" (Booklist), Where Rivers Part is destined to become a classic.
"There are moments of poignant beauty. There are also humiliations. Tswb is small and brown; her English is not good. In America, she is easily overlooked. In this exceptional book, Yang shows what a mistake it is to underestimate her: 'I wanted to claim the legacy of the woman I come from, the women who had to define for themselves what it meant to live in a world where luck was not on your side.' She has done so with deep feeling and grace." —BookPage (starred review)
"Yang writes much of the account from Tswb's perspective, giving tender voice to her struggles with the competing demands of family duty and personal fulfillment. The results are illuminating, uplifting, and difficult to forget." —Publishers Weekly
"Compassionate, lyrical, tender, and insightful." —Kirkus Reviews
"Yang foregoes third-person narration in favor of her mother's first-person voice. This gives the book immediacy, authenticity and humor … In her daughter's exceptional book, Tswb shines in the lead role." —Star Tribune
"Haunting and painfully relevant, Where Rivers Part continues this writer's powerful family story." —Booklist
"Yang's memoirs of Hmong life, traditions and displacement are not just powerful additions to the canon of immigrant literature — they are powerful books about life itself." —San Francisco Chronicle
"Yang keeps readers as close as possible to Tswb's perspective, treating her history and hardships with care. Where Rivers Part is a sensitive, unforgettable account of one mother's immeasurable strength and love for her family." —Esquire
"Kao Kalia Yang's retelling of her mother's life is so many things: haunting, moving, riveting, powerful. It is a testament to the miraculous strength of women and the indomitable resolve of the human spirit. But above everything, Where Rivers Part—a story of unshakable love—is itself an extraordinary act of love in return." —Cristina Henríquez, author of The Book of Unknown Americans
"Where Rivers Part confirms Kao Kalia Yang's position as not only the most important figure in Hmong American literature but one of the most interesting memoirists at work today." —Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
This information about Where Rivers Part was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Kao Kalia Yang is the author of The Song Poet, which received the 2017 Minnesota Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Chautauqua Prize, the PEN USA Literary Award, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Her previous book, The Latehomecomer, also received the Minnesota Book Award. Her children's books include A Map into the World, which won the Minnesota Book Award, and The Shared Room. Yang, a regular contributor to NPR's On Being, lives in Saint Paul.
If you liked Where Rivers Part, try these:
by Eve J.. Chung
Published 2025
A propulsive, extraordinary novel about a mother and her daughters' harrowing escape to Taiwan as the Communist revolution sweeps through China, by debut author Eve J. Chung, based on her family story.
by Rosena Fung
Published 2024
A powerful coming-of-age graphic novel about how mothers and daughters pass down—and rebel against—standards of size, gender, race, beauty, and worth.
by Bisi Adjapon
Published 2024
The acclaimed author of The Teller of Secrets returns with a gut-wrenching, yet heartwarming, story about a young Ghanaian woman's struggle to make a life in the US, and the challenges she must overcome.
Finishing second in the Olympics gets you silver. Finishing second in politics gets you oblivion.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
