A powerful memoir by 25-year-old Ly Tran about her immigrant experience and her recent family history in the aftermath of the war that spans from Vietnam to Brooklyn, and ultimately to the Ivy League. Ly Tran was just a toddler in 1993 when she and her family immigrated from a small town along the Mekong River in Vietnam to an apartment in Queens. Ly's father, a former lieutenant in the South Vietnamese army, spent nearly a decade as a POW, and their resettlement is made possible through a humanitarian program run by the US government. Torn between two worlds. Ly knows she must honor her parent's Buddhist faith and contribute to the family livelihood, while feeling pressure to blend in at school. Who is she outside of everything her family expects of her? -- adapted from jacket