Landbridge

Troeung, Y-Dang

£20.00

Born in, and named after, Thailand’s Khao-I-Dang refugee camp, Y-Dang Troeung was – aged one – the last of 60,000 Cambodian refugees admitted to Canada, fleeing her homeland in the aftermath of Pol Pot’s brutal Khmer Rouge regime. In Canada, Y-Dang became a literal poster child for the benevolence of the Canadian refugee project – and, implicitly, the unknowable horrors of Khmer Rouge-era Cambodia. In this book, Y-Dang grapples with a life lived in the shadow of pre-constructed narratives. She considers the transactional relationship between a host country and its refugees; she unpicks the demand for ‘testimony’ and the conflicting demand for disinterested academic rigour; she delves into the necessary contradictions between ethnic, regional and national identities; and she writes to her young son Kai with the promise that this family legacy is passed down with love at its core.

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Publish Date: 12/10/2023

Description

One woman’s heart-breaking, life-affirming memoir of loss, survival, bearing witness and a legacy of love

Landbridge has forever altered what I know, how I love, and what I hope’ Madeleine Thien, author of Do Not Say We Have Nothing

‘A masterpiece to console and guide generations to come’ Alice Pung, author of Unpolished Gem

Born in, and named after, Thailand’s Khao-I-Dang refugee camp, Y-Dang Troeung was – aged one – the last of 60,000 Cambodian refugees admitted to Canada, fleeing her homeland in the aftermath of Pol Pot’s brutal Khmer Rouge regime. In Canada, Y-Dang became a literal poster child for the benevolence of the Canadian refugee project – and, implicitly, the unknowable horrors of the place she had escaped.

In Landbridge, a family and personal memoir of astonishing power, Y-Dang grapples with a life lived in the shadow of pre-constructed narratives. She considers the transactional relationship between a host country and its refugees; she delves into the contradictions between ethnic, regional and national identities; and she writes to her young son Kai with the promise that this family legacy is passed down with love at its core.

Written in fragmentary chapters, each with the vivid light of a single candle in a pitch-black room, Landbridge is a courageous piece of life writing, the story of a family, and a bold, ground-breaking intervention in the way trauma and migration are told.

Additional information

Weight 382 g
Dimensions 204 × 138 × 31 mm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Hardback

Pages

224

Language

English

Edition
Dewey

971.00495932 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K