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Samantha Lê | Little Sister Left Behind
In this, her first novel, Samantha Lê composes a stunning fictional memoir of a family’s struggles through post-war Vietnam and their journey in search of a better life on foreign soil. The novel takes us from the private struggles of familial bonds to the public crumbling of old traditions, and then finally culminates in the ultimate battle between Father’s unrealized aspirations and our heroine’s fated attempt to free herself from the bonds of tradition and circumstance. It is the story of wounded pride, as personified by Father; silent resentment, as depicted by the conventional Mother; and the fragility of innocence, as embodied by our young heroine.
This novel tells the universal tales of all immigrants in the United States through the eyes of a young girl. It is a rare and honest portrait into the cultural changes and obstacles that many families undergo in order become part of the "American Dream."
Little Sister Left Behind is a tender, unapologetic look at the Vietnamese experience over the last thirty years—both in Vietnam and in America. The troubled relationship between our heroine and her family ultimately reveals the universal human tenderness and cruelty that places in high relief the ties that bond us with one another.
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