HMONG ABC

Beyond the Mountains: A Hmong Memoir

Paperback, 5x8, 216 pages, English 
by Khoua Thao
ISBN: 9780578875743

The narrative begins with the evacuation of Long Cheng, the life-altering event for the Hmong of Laos, witnessed through the eyes of a twelve-year-old boy. The airlift terminated as the enemy was closing in, leaving thousands behind. As part of the remnants, although hope was frail, the author’s family had a strong spirit and determination to survive. The approaching enemy propelled the author’s father to make an urgent life-changing decision to uproot his family and journey out of the mountains.

After the family escaped war-torn Laos and arrived at the Thai shore of the Mekong River, the author takes the reader back in time; he chronicles his childhood before the evacuation when it was relatively peaceful in the mountains.

The narrative then picks back up, continuing the family’s journey into refugee camps: Nong Khai, Nam Phong, and Ban Vinai in Thailand.

To truly be safe from the enemy, the author and his family journeyed beyond the mountains, arriving in the United States of America in 1976.