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  • I Did Not Miss the Boat

  • Memoir of a Vietnam Hoa Refugee
  • By: Lea Tran
  • Narrated by: Lea Tran
  • Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
  • 5.0 out of 5 stars (3 ratings)

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I Did Not Miss the Boat

By: Lea Tran
Narrated by: Lea Tran
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Publisher's Summary

I Did Not Miss the Boat is the coming of age story of an adolescent girl who struggled to help her family & assimilation into a new country while searching for her own identity. From surviving the vast South China Seas, pirate raids, and uninhabited Indonesian islands to surviving high school and family life, Lea Tran did not experience a typical American upbringing.

When the communists took over Saigon, Tran's world had turned upside down. Together with five hundred others, she and her family left everything they knew in hopes of a better future as "people" part of the mass exodus of refugees from post-war Vietnam.

Being Hoa, a Chinese minority in Vietnam, meant that she had shallow roots in both Chinese and Vietnamese traditions. In coming to America, she and her family grappled with holding onto their heritage, while embracing the new Western culture. Her memoir speaks to the experience of first-generation immigrants and refugees, and what it was like to rebuild their lives in a foreign land.

Through her vivid account of harrowing times, drastically opposite environments, and unparalleled determination, Lea Tran's inspiring journey from oppressive traditions to self-discovery and liberation will captivate and educate any non-fiction fan.

©2020 Lea Tran (P)2022 Lea Tran

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Inspirational - A must listen/read

Thank you Lea for sharing your amazing story and reading the book yourself. I Marvel how clearly and well you speak and read English given you didn’t start learning the language until you were about 16-17 years of age.

I’m blown away with your story; so glad you have written this book. It has filled in many important gabs for me. It’s incredibly interesting for me to hear you put so eloquently into word many of the things I’d witnessed or felt as a child myself in Vietnam and then having to navigate life between two cultures after having arrived in a new country in the same period of time – the 70’s and 80’s. Being the eldest child of my family, I also found myself saying yes yes yes to many of the things you shared about family expectations and the pressures that went with being the eldest child. I also really enjoyed your reflections, and the learnings/understandings you had gained in your attempt to make sense of life and the many challenges that came your way.
Many thanks also for making your book in audio format so that people who are blind or vision impaired like me are able to access and be inspired by your memoir.
I’ll definitely be letting my family and friends know about your book 😊

Simon W – Australia

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A great memoir - resonated with me

I enjoyed listening to this memoir, many of the themes resonated with me and I was appreciative of the description of the boat journey as my family were “boat people” too but I was only 6 years old when when our family escaped from Vietnam. So it was good to hear about the boat journey Lea’s family experienced.

The Canadian host family and community that welcomed us were very kind to us too. There are very kind people in the world, which is lovely to hear.

Financial struggle was felt by us too, good news is that we are all good now. We ended up moving to Australia from Canada, as where we lived in Canada the automotive companies were shedding jobs which would have left my father without a job.

I am really happy that I have had this privilege to listen to Lea’s family story. It’s made me want to dig into my family’s journey and ask my parents about their experiences while they are still living. Thank you.

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.