*Finalist for the California Book Award*
The thirteen stories inBirds of Paradise Lostshimmer with humor and pathos as they chronicle the anguish and joy and bravery of Americas newest Americans, the troubled lives of those who fled Vietnam and remade themselves in the San Francisco Bay Area. The pastmemories of war and its aftermath, of murder, arrest, re-education camps and new economic zones, of escape and shipwreck and atrocityis ever present in these wise and compassionate stories. It plays itself out in surprising ways in the lives of people who thought they had moved beyond the nightmares of war and exodus. It comes back on TV in the form of a confession from a cannibal; it enters the Vietnamese restaurant as a Vietnam Vet with a shameful secret; it articulates itself in the peculiar tics of a man with Tourettes Syndrome who struggles to deal with a profound tragedy.Birds of Paradise Lostis an emotional tour de force, intricately rendering the false starts and revelations in the struggle for integration, and in so doing, the human heart.
A lyrical and deeply satisfying fiction debut that extols and celebrates the troubled lives of those who fled Vietnam and remade themselves in the San Francisco Bay Area.
“Read Andrew Lam, and bask in his love of language, and his compassion for people, both those here and those from far away. He reminds us that we have history in common; we can laugh and cry together.”
—Maxine Hong Kingston
“Andrew Lam’s
Birds of Paradise Lostbrilliantly engages the fundamental theme of much great literary work: who am I and what is my place in the universe? His stories are elegant and humane and funny and sad. Lam has instantly established himself as one of our finest fiction writers.”
—Robert Olen Butler
“Andrew Lam’s exacting delivery is matched only by his mesmerizilSC
![Birds of Paradise Lost [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/4/6/9/2_202033.jpg "Birds of Paradise Lost [Paperback] xxx")