The Life We Were Given

In April 1975, the U.S. government evacuated nearly three thousand displaced Vietnamese children just before the fall of Saigon. Chaotic from start to finish, Operation Babylift gripped the American public and was often presented as a great humanitarian effort. Now, thirty-five years after the war ended, Dana Sachs examines the rescue more carefully, revealing how a single public-policy gesture irrevocably altered thousands of lives, not always for the better.

With sensitivity and balance, Sachs presents multiple perspectives: foreign adoption volunteers trying to "save" children; birth mothers making the wrenching decision to relinquish them; adoptive families waiting anxiously to adopt them; and the children themselves, struggling to understand. In particular, the book follows one such child, Anh Hansen, who left Vietnam through Operation Babylift and, decades later, returned to meet her birth mother. Through Anh’s story, and those of many others, The Life We Were Given will inspire impassioned discussion on the human cost of war, international adoption and aid efforts, and U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

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If You Lived Here

Lyrical and moving, Dana's new novel, If You Lived Here, takes the reader on a journey from loss to love, and shows how new beginnings can heal old wounds.

"Sachs is an expansive and generous writer who gives us, at all times, the pulse of life being lived. She’s the real deal.” --Louis Bayard, author of Mr. Timothy and The Pale Blue Eye

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The House on Dream Street

Dana's memoir, The House on Dream Street, is a heartfelt account of how she settled in with a Vietnamese family, learned the language, and made a place for herself in "enemy" territory.

"Passionate, perceptive."--Utne Reader

"Candid and largehearted." Elle Magazine

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Two Cakes Fit For A King

For centuries, Vietnamese have sustained the history of their nation, both actual and mythic, through their folklore. These stories, passed from generation to generation, contain not only the national saga, but also the cultural values that Vietnamese hold dear. The intricate illustrations draw on centuries-old painting styles and on natural imagery and everyday life in Vietnam. By Dana Sachs, Nguyen Nguyet Cam, and Bui Hoai Mai.

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Crossing the River

Translated from Vietnamese by Dana Sachs, Crossing the River presents a wide range of Nguyen Huy Thiep's short fiction, both realistic stories in contemporary settings and retellings of folk myths that serve as contemporary parables. When Thiep's stories first appeared in the 1980s, they set off a chain of debate, not only within intellectual and political circles, but also within society at large. He is widely considered Vietnam's finest short story writer.

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