Land of Dreams

"A moving and beautifully written book. . . a truly important book."

—Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize winner

Fifty years on from the Vietnam War, it can be easy to overlook the civilian lives that were forever changed by this endlessly debated global conflict. In Land of Dreams: An Immigrant’s Journey from War-Torn Vietnam to America, author C. L. Hoang recalls memories of how the war dramatically affected his own life and the lives of his family. 

Spanning two continents and more than ten years, Hoang’s journey begins with his childhood in Saigon, South Vietnam, in the 1960s and continues as he crosses the Pacific Ocean to study in the US in 1974. When Saigon fell to the Communists of North Vietnam just six months later, he found himself cut off from his family in a new and vastly different country. Struggling to adapt and survive while hanging on to his college dreams, Hoang embarked on a quest to reunite with his family as they risked life and limb to escape from the communist regime. 

Having lived through the Vietnam War and come to America young enough to absorb its culture as his own, Hoang offers a unique, human-scale perspective on the aftermath of one of the most significant conflicts in living memory. Land of Dreams is a meditation on what it means to lose one’s home and find another, and on how the echoes of war continue to shape the lives of those who survive such conflicts. By sharing his own story, Hoang also bears witness to the struggle and resilience of his fellow Vietnamese immigrants as well as countless other immigrants and refugees.