Winner Nielsen BookData Booksellers' (ABA) Choice Award 2011 AU;
Short-listed NSW Premier's Literary Awards, Community Relations Commission Award 2011 AU;
Joint winner/co-winner. Australian Book Industry Awards, Biography of the Year 2011 AU;
Winner Australian Book Industry Awards, Newcomer of the Year 2011 AU;
Winner Australian Book Industry Awards, Book of the Year 2011 AU;
Winner Indie Awards, Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2011 AU;
Winner Indie Awards, Book of the Year 2011 AU
Story of migration to Australia from Asia by 
The Indochinese in Australia, 1975-1995 by
This book explores the experiences of the Indochines in Australia over twenty years. The analysis is driven by the question: is Australian society still sufficiently open in its structures and social attitudes to allow Indochines to advance in the ways that earlier immigrants have?
Anh Do is one of Australia's leading comedians. He has also acted in television series and films, written screenplays and is a sought-after keynote speaker.
Under cover of darkness, Anh Do and his family fled the Communist regime in Vietnam, joining many of their extended family on a boat moored further out to sea. After a perilous journey they reached Malaysia, where they said they would settle anywhere. Told they were going to Australia, they collected lots of warm clothes, in readiness for their new home near Switzerland, but getting off the plane at Mascot Airport, soon acquainted them with the realities of Sydney in December.
1970's saw many Vietnamese refugees enter Australia, bringing with them the work ethic so strongly portrayed by Anh and his family. Reading this book, I was struck again and again by their resilience, perseverance and tenacity in having a go. Anh's parents worked in factories, eventually renting a warehouse with many of their family. Here they lived and worked, until buying a farm saw them raising ducks for eggs, a niche market in the burgeoning multicultural Australia. When this failed, the family went back to factory work, mum taking in sewing, having the children sit for scholarship exams to get them into a Catholic school for a sound education.
Few of us can have any idea of the bravery of these people setting out into unknown waters, all their possessions sold, to find a new life. But Anh's story gives the reader a sound background knowledge of one family's story, revealing the lengths to which this particular family went to find a new, safe home.
Throughout the book the reader is regaled with story after story of Anh's life with his family, at school, at university, marriage and his own family, but always, the constant echoes of the past are there. Meeting his father again after many years of estrangement is a big part of his adult life and is told with sincerity and candour. Having heard many interviews and some of his sessions as a stand up comedian, many of the stories are not new to me, but the honesty and self deprecating humour which he uses to tell his tale, give the stories a freshness that has a giant appeal. For students wanting an engaging autobiography to read, or a tale of a refugee, or someone for whom success has not come easily, then this book is inspirational.
ReadPlus Review
The laugh-out-loud, reach-for-your-hanky story of one of Australia's best-loved comedians.
Where the Sea Takes Us by
In the 1970s, hundreds of Vietnamese trusted their lives to shady characters running rickety boats out of postwar Vietnam in an effort to escape the dehumanisation of communist rule and try for a better life elsewhere. Kim Huynh's family was one of those who made that perilous voyage.
This book traces the author's parents' lives from a poor village in central Vietnam through relative affluence in Saigon, to their harrowing experiences after the American withdrawal and the fall of Saigon in 1975.
Give Me Shelter by
The phrase 'asylum-seeker' is one we see in the media all the time. It stimulates fierce and controversial debate, in arguments about migration, race and religion. The movement of people from poor or struggling countries to those where there may be opportunities for a better life is a constant in human history, but it is something with particular relevance in our own time. This collection of short stories shows us people who have been forced to leave their homes or families to seek help and shelter elsewhere. Some are about young people travelling to other countries, others are concerned with children left behind when parents are forced to flee. These are stories about physical and emotional suffering, but also about the humanity of some people from host countries who act with generosity and sympathy.
Boy Overboard by
Jamal and Bibi have a dream: To lead Australia to football glory in the next World Cup. But first they must face pirates, storms, and assassins. Can Jamal and his family survive their incredible journey and get to Australia?
Meet Marly by
It's 1983... and Marly is just trying to fit in at Sunshine Primary School. But being a refugee from Vietnam doesn't make things easy, and when Marly's cousins come to stay and end up at the same school, her friends make fun of them. How can Marly stay loyal to her cousins and keep her school friends as well?
Meet Marly and join in her adventure in the first of four exciting stories about a daring girl torn between two worlds.