Land of Smiles

Set in the 1970s, in the era of the Viet Nam War & its volatile aftermath, LAND OF SMILES tells the story of a young Southeast Asian man's journey from a refugee camp in Thailand to a housing project in Oakland, California. The novel opens with a Laotian boy, Boontakone, who swims across the Mekong River, leaving his old life behind. In a refugee camp in Thailand, Boontakone will learn that the Mekong has claimed the lives of his mother & sister & boatload of female refugees who may have been murdered by the ferryman for their jewelry & valuables. As Boontakone struggles to decipher the secret codes of the refugee camp, Huo offers a glimpse into a world as highly ordered & dependent on proper observance of social customs as any created by Jane Austen. Eventually, Boontakone & his father make their way to America, where the young man will have to sort out impressions as dazzling & puzzling as the American high school, "Superman" & Saturday Night Fever. Balancing a moving account of dislocation & loss with gentle comedy, LAND OF SMILES is a new classic in the literature of the immigrant experience.Huo, T. C. is the author of 'Land of Smiles' with ISBN 9780452281851 and ISBN 0452281857.