“Life is like that." papa turned once again to the Mekong. "Everything is connected, and sometimes we, like little fishes, are awept up in these big and powerful currents. Carried far from home...” — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share Image
“Always somewhere there was light, and, though transient, it flashed all the more brilliantly because of the surrounding dark.” — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share
“Life is like that." papa turned once again to the Mekong. "Everything is connected, and sometimes we, like little fishes, are awept up in… — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share
“The United States bombed Indochina with three times the tonnage of bombs used in all of World War II; Cambodia alone was hit with… — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share
“Turn your tongue seven times before speaking. This way you'll have time to think if you ought to say the things you want to… — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share
“If you pay close enough attention, Raami, you'll realize that a single leaf can contain myriad lives imitating our own, and you'll know that… — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share
“Lightning struck, the sky roared, and the night cried a giant's tears, thunderous and inconsolable.” — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share
“He often lookes like this - like he wanted to escape but knew he couldn't.” — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share
“When you love a flower", he said, as if wishing to explain his altered experience, "and suddenly she is gone, everything vanishes with her.… — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share
“She loved her daughter so much that she'd give the child whatever the girl desired. One night while they were playing in the garden,… — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share
“Perhaps it's natural for a father, for every parent, to see in his child all that's unspoiled and good.” — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share
“He supposes in this way he's learned to pray not as one might to the gods but as one does by simply pausing every… — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share
“Your grief will fade…It's hard to believe this now, my friend…but it will wither and, like a flower, leave behind always a seed of… — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share
“If the river brought us here," I ventured tentatively, "then when it reverses course, it'll carry us back.” — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share