A Vietnamese family flees its war-torn home and resettles in California, in a novel that offers a โbrilliant exploration of exile, loss, and identityโ (Robert Olen Butler).
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Told from multiple perspectives and spanning several decades, Grass Roof, Tin Roof begins with the story of Tran, a Vietnamese writer facing government persecution, who flees her homeland during the exodus of 1975 and brings her two children to the West. Here, she marries a Danish American man who has survived a different war. He promises understanding and guidanceโbut the psychic consequences of his past soon hinder his relationships with the family, as the children, for whom the war is now a distant shadow, struggle to understand the world around them on their own terms.
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In delicate, innovative prose, Stromโs characters experience the collision of cultures and the spiritual aftermath of war on the most visceral level. Grass Roof, Tin Roof is โan affecting study on the slippery nature of homeโ (Los Angeles Times).
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โ[Strom] explores the mysteries of loss, culture and identity, with skill, poignancy and imagination.โ โDetroit Free Press