Owner of a Lonely Heart: A Memoir

"This book...is what memoir writing in the hands of a caring, curious wunderkind can be." --Keise Laymon, author of Heavy

From the award-winning author of Stealing Buddha's Dinner, a powerful memoir of a mother-daughter relationship fractured by war and resettlement.

At the end of the Vietnam War, when Beth Nguyen was eight months old, she and her family fled Saigon for America. Only Beth's mother stayed--or was left--behind, and they did not meet again until Beth was nineteen. Over the course of her adult life, she and her mother have spent less than twenty-four hours together.

Owner of a Lonely Heart is "a portrait of things left unsaid" (The New York Times), a memoir about parenthood, absence, and the condition of being a refugee: the story of Beth's relationship with her mother. Framed by a handful of visits over the course of many years--sometimes brief, sometimes interrupted, some alone with her mother and others with the company of her sister--Beth tells an "unforgettable" (People) coming-of-age story that spans her childhood in the Midwest, her first meeting with her mother, and her own experience of parenthood.

Author: Beth Nguyen
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Published: 07/04/2023
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.82lbs
Size: 8.68h x 5.83w x 0.95d
ISBN: 9781982196349

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 05/15/2023
Publishers Weekly 05/29/2023
Booklist 06/01/2023 pg. 21
Library Journal 06/01/2023 pg. 121
BookPage 07/01/2023