{"product_id":"the-sacred-willow-four-generations-in-the-life-of-a-vietnamese-family","title":"The Sacred Willow: Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family","description":"\u003cp\u003eA finalist for the Pulitzer Prize  Duong Van Mai Elliotts The Sacred Willow illuminates recent Vietnamese history by weaving together the stories of the lives of four generations of her family. Beginning with her great-grandfather  who rose from rural poverty to become an influential landowner  and continuing to the present  Mai Elliott traces her familys journey through an era of tumultuous change. She tells us of childhood hours in her grandmothers silk shop  and of hiding while French troops torched her village  watching while blossoms torn by fire from the trees flutter \"like hundreds of butterflies\" overhead. She makes clear the agonizing choices that split Vietnamese families: her eldest sister left her staunchly anti-communist home to join the Viet Minh  and spent months sleeping in jungle camps with her infant son  fearing air raids by day and tigers by night. And she follows several family members through the last  desperate hours of the fall of Saigon-including one nephew who tried to escape by grabbing the skid of a departing American helicopter. Based on family papers  dozens of interviews  and a wealth of other research  this is not only a memorable family saga but a record of how the Vietnamese themselves have experienced their times.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44952390303797,"sku":"ByrdShop_0195124340","price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780195124347.jpg?v=1770814397","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-sacred-willow-four-generations-in-the-life-of-a-vietnamese-family","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}