If You Lived Here

by Dana Sachs

Book Overview

Forty-two-year-old Shelley Marino's desperate yearning for a child has led her to one of the only doors still open to her: foreign adoption. It is a decision that strains and ultimately shatters her relationship with her husband, Martin--the veteran of an Asian war who cannot reconcile what Shelley wants with what he knows about the world. But it unites her with Mai, who emigrated from Vietnam decades ago and has now acquired the accoutrements...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061130494
• ISBN13: 9780061130496
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Lyrical and captivating - a dramatic work of art.

Ten years in the making, "If You Lived Here" by Dana Sachs is the gripping and lyrical story of the healing friendship between two very different women who travel together to Vietnam, assisting one another on their personal quests. One of the women, Xuan Mai, is a single Vietnamese-American who impulsively fled her family and a poverty-stricken Vietnam 23 years ago under the impetus of an almost unbearable tragedy. The other woman, Shelly, is a married white American from North Carolina who finds herself captivated by Vietnam when her desire for a child leads there, also under very difficult circumstances. The novel twists and turns its way through their uncertain adventure, with fascinating vignettes exposing their characters and emotional experiences. Together the two women, transformed by their individual (yet shared) dramatic journeys to their families, come to their own peace in Vietnam. In an enriching juxtaposition, the heartwarming story of these two women is interwoven with a lyrical depiction of their two shared countries, northern Vietnam and southern United States. Dana Sachs is a noted author, translator and authority on Vietnamese literature and here, as in many of her books, Vietnam itself becomes a central character. Hanoi seeps through the novel in crystal clear description and riveting poetic narratives, till readers find themselves immersed in this vibrant, many faceted city. As Director of the Families with Children adopted from Vietnam I have read and published online a number of true life adoption stories. Unlike the reviewer above, I would say that "If You Lived Here" includes very few adoption procedures. Instead, Dana Sachs captures the strong emotions created during the ups and downs of the adoption process to propel the story forward. Dana Sach's ability to reveal the emotions and thoughts of a diverse group of characters is one of the many joys of her novel. The themes she expresses of longing for a child, forgiveness, and past experiences affecting the present are universal. "If You Lived Here" is a dramatic work of art that will be enjoyed for many years. I highly recommend this book not only to adoptive parents or readers interested in Vietnam, but to anyone who enjoys a great story.

Building and Keeping Family

In Dana Sach's novel "If You Lived Here", families are built, shattered and rebuilt. Set partly in Wilmington, NC, Shelley Marino marries an older man, Martin, who is raising his two sons. Shelley becomes an integral part of his work and family life. After struggling with infertility, Shelley is offered the opportunity to adopt a Vietnamese boy. Her heart draws her to the child and to Vietnam, while her husband discovers he is unable to travel the physical or emotional road to adoption with her. Shelley finds a travel companion in Xuan Mai, a Vietnamese woman living and running a grocery in Wilmington. Mai finds the courage to journey back to Vietnam after an absence of more than twenty years, to help Shelly with the adoption but also to heal her own wounds with her family and her country. Sachs accurately portrays the emotional trials of the adoption process and of becoming a family in a nontraditional way. She layers that story with Mai's struggle to come to the point in her life where she can ask forgiveness from her family and return home again. Sachs' descriptions of Vietnam are vivid and her love for the culture is obvious. Vietnam's struggle to evolve as a country is as riveting a story as Shelley's or Mai's. Sachs has written a story of culture and family and finding a place in those contexts. She is a fluid story teller and warmly welcomes her readers into the worlds she has created.

A wonderful novel of love, yearning and forgiveness

This is a beautiful novel of love, yearning and forgiveness--it is almost incidental that it also contains a gorgeous and vivid portrait of Vietnam. If you have ever yearned for a child; if you have ever done wrong and not known how to heal the wound; if you have ever crossed the boundary into a strange, new culture--then you will recognize your experience here, rendered with passion and insight.

The Great American-Vietnamese Novel

This novel is one of the few to explore the topic of foreign adoptin -- a story-line rife with dramatic potential. Sachs brilliantly shows how two women negotiate their blended identities: the Vietnamese shopkeeter who has transplanted herself in America, and the American woman who is about to mother to a Vietnamese child. Vibrating in the background is the complicated history between the two countries. A bravura performance for a first=time novelist.

so involving

one of those books you rush home to finish. i loved it.