When Heaven and Earth Changed Places

A memoir from the perspective of the other side, this book tells the story of a young girl in Central Vietnam who was recruited into the war and, by her teens, had suffered near-starvation, torture, imprisonment, and more, in addition to losing much of her family. Later she married an American and moved to this country, but since 1986, she has helped rebuild her homeland through the charitable organizations she established. 

Born Phùng Thị Lệ Lý, in a small village south of Da Nang, Le Ly presents a new and emerging view of the American War in Vietnam. This emerging literature attempts to expand the boundaries of the war in Vietnam to include the Vietnamese people and a culture that existed for thousands of years. The overwhelming amount of literature about the war in Vietnam has been written by Americans, and not surprisingly, by American veterans who mainly have written about their personal experiences. Le Ly Hayslip writes about her experiences at the hands of the South Vietnamese government, her rape… show more.