Synopsis

This is the saga of a girl named Phin - a story that poignantly underscores the reality that people are not all born equal. Some people are born to pain, poverty and oppression. Such was the case with Phin, a dark-skinned Cambodian/Vietnamese girl who started life at a deficit, feeling like a stranger in her own emotionally torn family, in her own war torn country. And yet, on her shoulders rested the burden of her family’s well being from a very early age.

This is the story of an indomitable spirit - of a girl who, in spite of the difficulties and the unfair burdens placed upon her, would fight the odds and overcome all obstacles in her undaunted quest for a better life.

From a tormented and oppressed childhood, to a bar girl with a determination to rise above her circumstance, the story of Phin is the story of a girl who would succeed against stiff odds. Her journey was not only a journey of the soul, but it was a journey of many traumatic and dangerous miles, from Saigon as it fell to the North Vietnamese, to freedom and love in America.

As with all true-to-life stories, the ending is a mixture of pleasure and pain, of love and loss. Phin finds the love of her life, has the family that loves and accepts her, finds the career that suits her many talents, but as life gives, it also takes away. Phin loses her love, her husband Daniel, to cancer. It is a terrible, unfair, devastating blow.

Phin’s earlier life taught her how to handle the worst that life could dish out. She is a survivor in every sense, and her strength would carry her through this great loss. The loss of Daniel would not be the end of her story.

In this compelling saga, readers will cry with Phin, and also laugh with her, for as tragic as her life often was, it had its humorous moments, too. And though the story begins in an exotic locale, the reader will easily identify with the full spectrum of emotion that the story of Phin evokes, the highs and the lows, the disappointments and the special moments of achievement when ones dreams are realized.

A book that begs to be read, this is an engaging and inspirational saga that helps us reassess and gain a clearer perspective on our own lives and character - to draw from the spirit of Phin as we find the fortitude to change what we can, the ability to appreciate the good that life brings our way, and the strength to accept and overcome inevitable and tragic loss.