Undaunted

Orphaned at four in a Viet Cong massacre. A war that would not end. Relatives who helped and relatives who hurt. Then America, poverty, and a young husband’s grave.

Van B. Choat was born Nguyen Thi Hien in Rach Gia. She does not know her birthday. The people who could tell her are gone.

This memoir is not a speech about resilience. It is the road: grandmother, false friends, bureaucrats, the Tet Offensive, the last planes out of Saigon, two sons, and the women who held her hands when no one else would.

Life makes orphans of us all. Some get a head start.

Undaunted
A Memoir
Van B. Choat