“I thought maybe we mourned not only for the dead but also for the living. We felt their absence before we knew for sure they were gone.” — 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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“Lightning struck, the sky roared, and the night cried a giant's tears, thunderous and inconsolable.” — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share Image
“He often lookes like this - like he wanted to escape but knew he couldn't.” — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“If the river brought us here," I ventured tentatively, "then when it reverses course, it'll carry us back.” — Vaddey Ratner Copy Share Image
