Overview

A haunting story of survival, sacrifice, and the unbridgeable distance between mothers and daughters-until it's almost too late. Sophea Khun has spent thirty-four years running from her mother's donut shop, from the smell of fryer oil, from the shame of being the daughter of a refugee. At forty-three, she's a successful immigration lawyer living a life as far from Cambodia Town as possible. But when she's forced to attend her mother's seventy-fourth birthday party, one argument and one slap send her car skidding off a rain-slicked highway. When she wakes, she's not in a hospital-she's in Long Beach in 1991, living in her mother's body. For two years, Sophea experiences her mother's impossible life: arriving in America with five children, no English, and no money. Working eighteen-hour days. Learning to make donuts at 3 AM with hands that burn. Building a business with four other refugee women who pool fifty dollars a month because together, they might survive what would destroy them alone. She feels the weight of being her family's translator at nine years old. The sting of racism swallowed daily. The nightmares that never stop. The exhaustion so deep it erases the self. The love that looks like coldness because there's no energy left for warmth. And she finally understands why her mother couldn't be the mother she needed. A powerful exploration of the Cambodian refugee experience, intergenerational trauma, and the invisible labor of immigrant mothers, After Cambodia, There Was Us reveals what survival costs, what sacrifice looks like, and how understanding can bridge even the deepest divides-if it comes in time. Perfect for readers who loved The Joy Luck Club, Everything I Never Told You, and Pachinko. --- Content Note: This novel contains themes of genocide, refugee trauma, racism, poverty, and parental emotional distance. It depicts the Cambodian genocide and refugee experience with honesty and respect.

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