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Where Rivers Part: A Story of My Mother's Life
An Esquire Best Memoir of 2024
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.
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.
325 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 19, 2024
196 people are currently reading
6265 people want to read
About the author
Kao Kalia Yang
25 books531 followersKao Kalia Yang is an award-winning Hmong-American writer. She is a graduate of Carleton College and Columbia University. Yang is the author of the memoirs The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir and The Song Poet. The Latehomecomer is the first Asian American authored and centered book to be added to the roster of the Literature to Life Program and a National Endowment for the Arts Big Read title. The Song Poet has been commissioned as a youth opera by the Minnesota Opera and will premiere in the spring of 2021. Yang is also the author of the children’s books, A Map Into the World, The Shared Room, and The Most Beautiful Thing. She co-edited the ground-breaking collection What God is Honored Here?: Writings on Miscarriage and Infant Loss By and For Indigenous Women and Women of Color. Her newest title is Somewhere in the Unknown World, a collective memoir of refugee experiences. Yang’s literary nonfiction work has been recognized by the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Chautauqua Prize, the PEN USA literary awards, the Dayton’s Literary Peace Prize, and garnered three Minnesota Book awards. Her children’s books have been listed as an American Library Association Notable Book, a Zolotow Honor, a Kirkus Best Book of the Year, a finalist for the Midwest Independent Bookseller’s Award, and winner of a Minnesota Book Award in Children’s Literature. Kao Kalia Yang is a recipient of the International Institute of Minnesota’s Olga Zoltai Award for her community leadership and service to New Americans and the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts’ 2019 Sally Award for Social Impact.
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June 12, 2025
ANHPI Heritage Month 2025 #20
Part I
Ten years ago, I mostly saw white books on the shelves. A few years later, I began to see East Asian diaspora fiction, mainly Chinese and Taiwanese. Then came Southeast Asian, and with that, a more own voices tellings ofVietnam American War stories.
These days, I have a plethora of Vietnamese diaspora fiction to choose from, enough so that I have to turn some down. Love that for me. But there is more to Southeast Asia than the fiction coming out of Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore.
The war happened across former Indochina. Where are the stories about Cambodia? Laos? The ethnic minorities in those countries?
Here, Kao, a Hmong American, retells her mother's heartbreaking story of resilience. I cannot imagine being married so young. Being married thrice. Birthing 10+ children. Taking care of even more. Having to ask for help from my stepchildren, many of which are older than me. And yet, she does. And she does it gracefully.
I can already tell this is going to make me cry.
Part II
The idea that your husband can leave you just because you don't "give" him sons is utterly ridiculous to me. That he feels entitled pisses me off. That his parents feel entitled pisses me off. (Especially his mother. You are a woman. Respect other women.) That other women feel entitled to him pisses me off the most.
Women not supporting women. Amazing.
Part III
I'm feeling a bit of a disconnect to the story. Not the author's fault. Memoirs are their own truth.
At this point, the family have left the refugee camp and resettled in Minnesota. You may recall this state has a large Hmong population. Did you, too, learn this after watching Suni Lee at the Summer Olympics? Southeast Asians unite, am I right?
Some parts of this section are mundane, like wanting to go to the Mall of America, and the concept of window shopping, because you can't afford actual shopping. Some are eerie, if not yet relatable, like your husband asking you to abort your latest pregnancy, even though you've gone through 10+. Why? Why now?
Part IV
I know they still have family there, and that's why they chose to return to Laos, but I think this was my parents' fear in revisiting Vietnam. They've never gone back. They've never wanted to. As someone who never wanted to go, but went for the first time last year and loved it, and I can finally understand their side.
We, as children, do not understand fleeing the only homeland you've ever known because of war. And I imagine it's doubly difficult here to be an ethnic minority twice over. There are aggressions from white Americans. But there are also aggressions from the Lao. I'm not saying one country is perfect. There is no perfect place. But what is the balance?
Book pairings: SLOW NOODLES | THE MANICURIST'S DAUGHTER
📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books
Part I
Ten years ago, I mostly saw white books on the shelves. A few years later, I began to see East Asian diaspora fiction, mainly Chinese and Taiwanese. Then came Southeast Asian, and with that, a more own voices tellings of
These days, I have a plethora of Vietnamese diaspora fiction to choose from, enough so that I have to turn some down. Love that for me. But there is more to Southeast Asia than the fiction coming out of Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore.
The war happened across former Indochina. Where are the stories about Cambodia? Laos? The ethnic minorities in those countries?
Here, Kao, a Hmong American, retells her mother's heartbreaking story of resilience. I cannot imagine being married so young. Being married thrice. Birthing 10+ children. Taking care of even more. Having to ask for help from my stepchildren, many of which are older than me. And yet, she does. And she does it gracefully.
I can already tell this is going to make me cry.
Part II
The idea that your husband can leave you just because you don't "give" him sons is utterly ridiculous to me. That he feels entitled pisses me off. That his parents feel entitled pisses me off. (Especially his mother. You are a woman. Respect other women.) That other women feel entitled to him pisses me off the most.
Women not supporting women. Amazing.
Part III
I'm feeling a bit of a disconnect to the story. Not the author's fault. Memoirs are their own truth.
At this point, the family have left the refugee camp and resettled in Minnesota. You may recall this state has a large Hmong population. Did you, too, learn this after watching Suni Lee at the Summer Olympics? Southeast Asians unite, am I right?
Some parts of this section are mundane, like wanting to go to the Mall of America, and the concept of window shopping, because you can't afford actual shopping. Some are eerie, if not yet relatable, like your husband asking you to abort your latest pregnancy, even though you've gone through 10+. Why? Why now?
Part IV
I know they still have family there, and that's why they chose to return to Laos, but I think this was my parents' fear in revisiting Vietnam. They've never gone back. They've never wanted to. As someone who never wanted to go, but went for the first time last year and loved it, and I can finally understand their side.
We, as children, do not understand fleeing the only homeland you've ever known because of war. And I imagine it's doubly difficult here to be an ethnic minority twice over. There are aggressions from white Americans. But there are also aggressions from the Lao. I'm not saying one country is perfect. There is no perfect place. But what is the balance?
Book pairings: SLOW NOODLES | THE MANICURIST'S DAUGHTER
📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books
April 23, 2024
Thank you, @atriabooks, for the gifted book. I also purchased the audio from Libro.fm for an incredible read/listen.
About the book: “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.”
If you read and loved Kristin Hannah’s The Women, or if it’s high on your TBR and you long to read it, you absolutely should read it. I loved that book! At the same time, I urge you to add Where Rivers Part to your reading list. Kay Kalia Yang’s parents were born in war torn Laos during the time The Women was set. Do you remember the people living in the mountain villages in the book? This is the same ethnic group.
Sometimes readers are reluctant to pick up memoirs or biographies, but Where River Parts reads better than most any fictional novel, and it happens to be real. It has dialogue, action, family dynamics, culture, powerful emotion, and so much heart.
It’s a beautiful thing that the author penned this book for her mother, written in her mother’s voice. It’s especially poignant on audio. Tswb, the author’s mother, longs to be reunited with her own mother. Unfortunately, that does not happen until years after she has passed away. I won’t spoil it for you, but Tswb’s journey continues until the very last page.
Where Rivers Part is an ode to mothers, a meditation on storytelling, and a powerful story of sacrifice. It’s quite simply one of the best memoirs I’ve ever read, and I urge everyone to read it for a firsthand account by a Hmong author.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
About the book: “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.”
If you read and loved Kristin Hannah’s The Women, or if it’s high on your TBR and you long to read it, you absolutely should read it. I loved that book! At the same time, I urge you to add Where Rivers Part to your reading list. Kay Kalia Yang’s parents were born in war torn Laos during the time The Women was set. Do you remember the people living in the mountain villages in the book? This is the same ethnic group.
Sometimes readers are reluctant to pick up memoirs or biographies, but Where River Parts reads better than most any fictional novel, and it happens to be real. It has dialogue, action, family dynamics, culture, powerful emotion, and so much heart.
It’s a beautiful thing that the author penned this book for her mother, written in her mother’s voice. It’s especially poignant on audio. Tswb, the author’s mother, longs to be reunited with her own mother. Unfortunately, that does not happen until years after she has passed away. I won’t spoil it for you, but Tswb’s journey continues until the very last page.
Where Rivers Part is an ode to mothers, a meditation on storytelling, and a powerful story of sacrifice. It’s quite simply one of the best memoirs I’ve ever read, and I urge everyone to read it for a firsthand account by a Hmong author.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
May 14, 2024
Excellent — highly recommend!
November 6, 2023
Thank you to Netgalley and Atria for this ARC in exchange of an honest review.
Where Rivers Part is Kaokalia’s mother, Tswb,’s story but is also the story of so many Hmong refugees. We follow Tswb’s life: growing up in Dej Tshuam, fleeing into the jungles during the Secret War, life in the Thai refugee camps, and finally adapting to life in America.
This story tugged at my heartstrings. Like Tswb, many people I know and love faced the same challenges and traumas of war. The first half of this book read like a historical fiction; I often forgot I was reading a memoir.
However, I wish this story was told with more emotion. While Kaokalia’s prose is undoubtedly beautiful, her writing is very linear, “I did this, then that. This happened, then that.” But this story, like many refugee stories, is extremely emotional and I wish that shined through. I also wish we were given more context on the war. While I don’t think it’s necessary for authors to give history lessons, I think it is important in this instance because the Hmong’s history is still largely unfamilar to the general public.
That said, I also hope that this book is still deep in editing because there were so many inconsistencies: Npis vs Bee, Xieng Khouang vs Xiengkhouang, etc. At around the 60% mark, the prose started to feel very sloppy with details that didn’t add much to Tswb’s story.
All in all, I really enjoyed Where Rivers Part. I’m excited for a broader audience to learn about the Hmong people and our history. If you enjoyed The Mountains Sing, Dust Child, and The Latehomecomer, you’ll enjoy this one.
Where Rivers Part is Kaokalia’s mother, Tswb,’s story but is also the story of so many Hmong refugees. We follow Tswb’s life: growing up in Dej Tshuam, fleeing into the jungles during the Secret War, life in the Thai refugee camps, and finally adapting to life in America.
This story tugged at my heartstrings. Like Tswb, many people I know and love faced the same challenges and traumas of war. The first half of this book read like a historical fiction; I often forgot I was reading a memoir.
However, I wish this story was told with more emotion. While Kaokalia’s prose is undoubtedly beautiful, her writing is very linear, “I did this, then that. This happened, then that.” But this story, like many refugee stories, is extremely emotional and I wish that shined through. I also wish we were given more context on the war. While I don’t think it’s necessary for authors to give history lessons, I think it is important in this instance because the Hmong’s history is still largely unfamilar to the general public.
That said, I also hope that this book is still deep in editing because there were so many inconsistencies: Npis vs Bee, Xieng Khouang vs Xiengkhouang, etc. At around the 60% mark, the prose started to feel very sloppy with details that didn’t add much to Tswb’s story.
All in all, I really enjoyed Where Rivers Part. I’m excited for a broader audience to learn about the Hmong people and our history. If you enjoyed The Mountains Sing, Dust Child, and The Latehomecomer, you’ll enjoy this one.
October 12, 2025
4.5 stars. I would've liked a bit more political background because like most Americans I know very little about this history. I come from Central Minnesota, so I have met a few Hmong people, including some amazingly strong women. Their community faced enormous racism on top of being settled in the unforgiving environment that is Minnesota. This memoir describes the experiences that many refugees faced – fleeing their villages, life in a refugee camp, and then settlement in an unfathomably strange country. On arrival in America many of them had never used indoor plumbing, and they had cultural practices such as shamanism and animal sacrifice that Americans found disturbing. The distance between the two cultures meant that the refugees took more time to integrate, which was hard for the people around them to understand or accept. Much of this memoir reads like a novel, and I found it totally engrossing. Reading it may help people understand that the Hmong community are a brave and resilient people who were self-sufficient in their own land and were forced to flee by geopolitics over which they had no control. I hope this memoir can raise awareness about this poorly understood community, and inspire respect and empathy in its readers. I highly recommend this moving account of mothers, daughters, and the refugee experience.
September 20, 2023
Kao Kalia Yang's memoir about her mother's life, Where Rivers Part, is one of the best memoirs that I have ever read. Yang's lyrical prose is so well written that I had to confirm that this beautiful book was indeed a memoir and not a novel.
The dangers of Laos to the Hmong people in the wake of the Laotian Civil War are explained through the lives of Yang's family centered around her mother Tswb. The love between mother and children is an inspiring theme that runs throughout the entire book. The heroic lengths that Tswb goes through to support her family and the love returned by her family are heartwarming.
I loved that this book was a combination of history, family bonds and stories of overcoming great adversity. Where Rivers Part is an absolute must read.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am looking forward to reading all of Kao Kalia Yang's books to learn more about her remarkable family.
The dangers of Laos to the Hmong people in the wake of the Laotian Civil War are explained through the lives of Yang's family centered around her mother Tswb. The love between mother and children is an inspiring theme that runs throughout the entire book. The heroic lengths that Tswb goes through to support her family and the love returned by her family are heartwarming.
I loved that this book was a combination of history, family bonds and stories of overcoming great adversity. Where Rivers Part is an absolute must read.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am looking forward to reading all of Kao Kalia Yang's books to learn more about her remarkable family.
August 14, 2024
4.5
kao kalia what did u put in this book bc i was BAWLING through it. thank u for beautifully illustrating the hmong people's story and esp ur moms. ua tsaug 🙏🏼
kao kalia what did u put in this book bc i was BAWLING through it. thank u for beautifully illustrating the hmong people's story and esp ur moms. ua tsaug 🙏🏼
January 25, 2025
Thank you to the author1124669 and the publisher, Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster for providing me with an advanced readers copy of this book I am sorry it took me so long to read it. I received an arc of it by the author in Fall 2023. I had loved Kao Kalia Yang's other family memoirs, The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir and The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father. It was such a gift to receive a copy of this book from her. I was excited to read this one too and had good intentions of starting it ASAP. Good intentions turned into months. The book was published in March 2024 and I still hadn't started it. Late July came and I finally picked it up with the goal of reading a chapter a day since I was reading numerous other books at the same time. Once again good intentions failed me. I felt compelled to pick this up again a few nights ago. The third time was a charm. I finished reading over half the book in a matter of days.
After writing her own memoir and one for her father, Yang writes one for her mother. From her early days in Vietnam to being a young wife and refugee in Thailand to moving to the United States and becoming Hmong American; this is Tswb Muas's story. I enjoyed Part III the most where Twab talks about each of her children who I had been introduced to in The Late Homecomer. I loved revisiting them and learning more of their stories. I also enjoyed Part IV Return of the Refuge in which Tswb, her husband Npis and their three oldest children travel back to Vietnam. It was a perfect ending (IMO).
If you like memoirs, learning about ethnic minorities or #OwnVoices stories, this book is for you.
After writing her own memoir and one for her father, Yang writes one for her mother. From her early days in Vietnam to being a young wife and refugee in Thailand to moving to the United States and becoming Hmong American; this is Tswb Muas's story. I enjoyed Part III the most where Twab talks about each of her children who I had been introduced to in The Late Homecomer. I loved revisiting them and learning more of their stories. I also enjoyed Part IV Return of the Refuge in which Tswb, her husband Npis and their three oldest children travel back to Vietnam. It was a perfect ending (IMO).
If you like memoirs, learning about ethnic minorities or #OwnVoices stories, this book is for you.
May 1, 2024
This is a memoir about the author’s Hmong mother Tswb and her challenging life story. Born in a village where two rivers meet in Laos, Tswb and her family had to flee from being persecuted by their country’s communist faction during the Laotian civil war after the Americans evacuated Laos. Living and moving constantly in the jungle to evade the soldiers, she marries and then escapes to Thailand with her husband’s family leaving her own family behind in Laos. After eight years living in a refugee camp in Thailand, they apply for and are approved for immigration to the U.S. and move to the state of Minnesota, where her story continues as she is challenged to adjust to a new life, earn a living in a different environment, and raise a family. Overall this book was a good read. I enjoyed the first half of the book more than the second half. I felt the writing flowed well and the language was a lot more expressive and even poetic at times than the second half of the book set in the U.S. The second part of the book wasn’t as smooth as the first part, but seemed to jump around a bit, then came to anchor with the birth of the next child and then the next. I would have liked more specifics about how Tswb and her husband navigated life in the U.S. as immigrants and particularly how their kids, including the author, graduated from great universities and became successful - what an achievement, given their challenging lives. Maybe there’s another book in the works on this! Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.
April 8, 2025
It took me a long long time to finish this book because it is a heavy one, in my opinion. It’s one that requires you to sit and think and feel, but I finally finished it! It was worth it waiting until I was ready to sit and read it 🫶🏻
June 12, 2025
This was not an easy read but I found it to be a beautifully told, eye-opening, and humbling memoir. The themes of motherhood and incredible sacrifice were powerful and brought me to tears many times.
December 29, 2024
One of the best books I've ever read!
May 12, 2024
Where Rivers Part is the moving account of the life of the author's mother. It's a story of war and flight, of fear and courage, of family, and especially of motherhood--having a mother and being one. After the Vietnam War, Communists searched Laos for the Hmong residents whom they thought had aided the Americans. Villagers, including Tswb Muas who was a teenager, fled ahead of the soldiers.
During their years of hiding in the jungle, she met and married Npis, the youngest son of another family. The night of their marriage was the last time she saw her mother. After living several years in a Thai refugee camp, Tswb and Npis and their two young children came to Minnesota. The book chronicles Tswb's life and her return to Laos to see her family.
A brief summary cannot do justice to the account. Yang's ability to convey the difficulties her parents faced is astounding. I kept forgetting that it was not Tswb telling the story. The horrors, the terrors, the struggles come across powerfully. I recommend this book as a moving story and a way to increase your empathy and understanding of what those who uproot their lives because of war go through.
During their years of hiding in the jungle, she met and married Npis, the youngest son of another family. The night of their marriage was the last time she saw her mother. After living several years in a Thai refugee camp, Tswb and Npis and their two young children came to Minnesota. The book chronicles Tswb's life and her return to Laos to see her family.
A brief summary cannot do justice to the account. Yang's ability to convey the difficulties her parents faced is astounding. I kept forgetting that it was not Tswb telling the story. The horrors, the terrors, the struggles come across powerfully. I recommend this book as a moving story and a way to increase your empathy and understanding of what those who uproot their lives because of war go through.
April 16, 2024
This is a must read. It is a beautifully written story of history, resilience, and love of family. Kao Kalia Yang's memoir of her mother takes us from the mountains of Laos, to a refugee camp in Thailand and finally to resettlement in Minnesota.
April 1, 2024
Thank you to @simon.audio for the gifted audiobook.
A daughter tells the story of her mothers life (in first person) as she is born in Laos in the 1960's, during their escape, life in a refugee camp in Thailand and their journey to the US. At about the half way mark we then follow her life in the US.
I found this story really well done with a few specific markers of what were pivotal aspects in her mothers life. The trials and struggles of refugee parents are so real but in the end it benefits their children greatly. What a gift this daughter gave her mother by writing her memoir/biography.
A daughter tells the story of her mothers life (in first person) as she is born in Laos in the 1960's, during their escape, life in a refugee camp in Thailand and their journey to the US. At about the half way mark we then follow her life in the US.
I found this story really well done with a few specific markers of what were pivotal aspects in her mothers life. The trials and struggles of refugee parents are so real but in the end it benefits their children greatly. What a gift this daughter gave her mother by writing her memoir/biography.
March 4, 2025
The love, the loss, the yearning, and all the emotions in between were felt in this book. It was such beautifully written memoir of her mother’s story. The amount of love, care, and understanding in this memoir is heartwarming and heartbreaking.
“How I wish for a record of my life, something to show that I had indeed lived and that I had tried my best not only to build myself but my children up to something that mattered, people the world might see and care for.”
“How I wish for a record of my life, something to show that I had indeed lived and that I had tried my best not only to build myself but my children up to something that mattered, people the world might see and care for.”
May 5, 2025
This Minnesota Book Award winning memoir traces the difficult life of the author's Hmong mother, from escaping persecution in Laos to being a refugee for many years in Thailand before finally settling in Minnesota.
July 10, 2025
This is a must read. Perspective of coming to America as a 20 year-old from Lowes in 1980. I remember those years and we had no idea what these newcomers have had been going through.
September 23, 2025
5/5
An incredible story.
An incredible story.
January 8, 2025
Read this after the Latehomecomer book and before I began I didn’t know how she could improve upon that book. This book is told in the voice & perspective of her mother, and expands upon the condensed version of her life we get in the Latehomecomer. It’s essential to read if you felt enthralled by her Kao’s family in that book. As in the previous book, all the elements of the story came alive and were deeply moving. I couldn’t stop sharing anecdotes with my partner about funny or sad or relatable moments her parents experienced. The former book tried to tell the story of every one in a tapestry but this book improves upon that and the immersive story is richer. The history of the Hmong people is finally accessible and acknowledged in these books and I’m sorry that I didn’t know of them sooner. I seek out books from marginalized people and I hope more and more of them get to write more books to edify the world. I will read this book and the former many more times in my life for the beauty of her stories & to keep the history of the Hmong alive for my children by sharing as they grow.
May 6, 2025
Very poetic writing style but you get used to it. So raw and real!
April 5, 2024
This Hmong author has chosen to present the the story of her mother's life starting in the mountains of Laos in 1970s in her mother's voice. Thus, the book reads like a memoir. Her mother's name is Tswb (Chew). she was very close to her father as a little girl. She was the first daughter of his 3rd and final wife. He owned a citrus orchard near the base of the mountains where two rivers merged. She was quite young when he died. In 1975 when the U.S. pulled out of the war with Vietnam, the North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao soldiers were searching for those people they saw as American collaborators (or just disliked) and were re-locating or killing whole families. Tswb's family - mother, adult siblings with wives and children, and younger siblings all packed a few valuables and evacuated into the mountain jungle. While in the jungle, Tswb met the young man she would marry. She was 17 and he was 18. She fled with his family to a Ban Vinai refugee camp in Thailand and later to Minnesota in the U.S. This detailed and and fact-filled story gives a very touching account of this refugee woman's life.
July 22, 2024
I am fortunate to know the author's extended family, and I have been the landlord/pastor to a Hmong Christian congregation in my church building. I knew some of this story, but to have it told, country-by-country, on-the-run, in a camp, in cold Minnesota living in poverty and mold, and the displacement that often brings starvation? It is much more real to me after reading Ms. Yang's latest memoir.
It also brings home the misfortune of all who have fled their homelands because of war, famine, drought, economic and racial inequities. Ms. Yang's mother's remarkable story lifted up my own speculation about a widowed grandmother and three teenage daughters who emigrated from Germany to the U.S. in the 1880s, all 3 daughters soon married. Who paid their way? Were all 3 marriages arranged? What desparation created them on their journey? Ms. Yang's story brings other stories to life!
The author's ability to turn a phrase and to lift up the story of her family is unique and powerful. I commend this story to you, and if possible, read it out loud with a friend, as I did. It takes longer, but is well worth the time.
It also brings home the misfortune of all who have fled their homelands because of war, famine, drought, economic and racial inequities. Ms. Yang's mother's remarkable story lifted up my own speculation about a widowed grandmother and three teenage daughters who emigrated from Germany to the U.S. in the 1880s, all 3 daughters soon married. Who paid their way? Were all 3 marriages arranged? What desparation created them on their journey? Ms. Yang's story brings other stories to life!
The author's ability to turn a phrase and to lift up the story of her family is unique and powerful. I commend this story to you, and if possible, read it out loud with a friend, as I did. It takes longer, but is well worth the time.
October 19, 2025
I took longer to finish “Where Rivers Part” than I usually do with memoirs, and for good reason. Every chapter needed to be absorbed slowly, fully appreciated, and deeply felt. Kao Kalia Yang writes with such grace and emotional clarity that each painful, tense, and tender moment of her mother’s journey from war-torn Laos to life in America feels immediate and real.
What makes this memoir especially powerful is Yang’s ability to portray the quiet strength and deep love mother's possess. The relationship between her mother and grandmother is written with such honesty and care that it moved me deeply. This is not only a story of survival, but also one of love, sacrifice, and resilience.
Reading "Where Rivers Part" was inspiring. It reminded me of the strength it takes to carry family, culture, and memory through unimaginable hardship. Yang honors her mother’s story with compassion and beauty, and in doing so, offers something truly meaningful to readers. This is a memoir that stays with you. If you are looking for a powerful, beautifully written, and emotionally resonant book, you should definitely read "Where Rivers Part".
What makes this memoir especially powerful is Yang’s ability to portray the quiet strength and deep love mother's possess. The relationship between her mother and grandmother is written with such honesty and care that it moved me deeply. This is not only a story of survival, but also one of love, sacrifice, and resilience.
Reading "Where Rivers Part" was inspiring. It reminded me of the strength it takes to carry family, culture, and memory through unimaginable hardship. Yang honors her mother’s story with compassion and beauty, and in doing so, offers something truly meaningful to readers. This is a memoir that stays with you. If you are looking for a powerful, beautifully written, and emotionally resonant book, you should definitely read "Where Rivers Part".
July 25, 2024
Lovely book. Lots of words and details about mundane things, but Yang did it in such an artistic, yet unflattering fashion.
The characters are intimate. There would be many more things that I would’ve understood if I were a mother.
Yang switches a bit between first and second person— which I found both annoying and intriguing. First person was generally used when the mother directly addresses one of her children. These moments felt incredibly personal. Almost as if I were reading something that was intended only for the child. Mostly, I adjusted expectations and learned to love the odd quirk.
I did find the way that bits of the story were written in and amongst each other a bit confusing. The timeline wasn’t always clear, and there were times that what I thought was a future reference was just a passing point.
The characters are intimate. There would be many more things that I would’ve understood if I were a mother.
Yang switches a bit between first and second person— which I found both annoying and intriguing. First person was generally used when the mother directly addresses one of her children. These moments felt incredibly personal. Almost as if I were reading something that was intended only for the child. Mostly, I adjusted expectations and learned to love the odd quirk.
I did find the way that bits of the story were written in and amongst each other a bit confusing. The timeline wasn’t always clear, and there were times that what I thought was a future reference was just a passing point.
June 20, 2025
This memoir of the life of Mung immigrants was heartbreaking. I appreciate the power of culture and family- and loved the way this young couple forged a new life for their children. Parents make sacrifices, but the bravery and commitment they made to a better life not for themselves but for their children gave me pause. As a daughter and a mother to daughters I also loved the connection between mother and daughter. I am interested in learning more about the Mung people after reading this.
September 22, 2024
Incredible memoir of Hmong experiences in the war in Laos, in the refugee camp in Thailand, and in Minnesota. A difficult choice of husband. Leaving her family. Seven children. A mother’s love after unbelievable trauma.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 7, 2024
Outstanding Memoir
In this memoir, Kao pretends to be her mother and gives her account of a life as a Hmong refugee from Laos, marrying at 16 and coming back decades later to honor her mother. Very intense.
In this memoir, Kao pretends to be her mother and gives her account of a life as a Hmong refugee from Laos, marrying at 16 and coming back decades later to honor her mother. Very intense.
May 25, 2025
Книга про сім’ю, яка втікла з Лаосу під час війни. Розказана жінкою, яка пройшла табори біженців і виїхала в США, залишивши матір і братів/сестер. Найбільше мене вразила остання частина, де героїня стикається з питанням сенсу життя після того як всі діти виросли.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 9, 2025
A gorgeous, moving, reflective memoir about a mother and her life’s journey. Loved the Late Homecomer so I knew I would like this too. The meaning of two rivers meeting was so beautiful and poignant about life and the meandering paths we take.
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