cover image Children in Exile: The Story of a Cross-Cultural Family

Children in Exile: The Story of a Cross-Cultural Family

Thekla Clark. Ecco Press, $23 (179pp) ISBN 978-0-88001-633-9

In an affecting memoir told with humor, modesty and brevity, Clark relates how she and her husband opened their home to two refugee families from Cambodia and Vietnam. Expatriate Americans living in Italy, the Clarks were appalled by America's involvement in Southeast Asia and decided on impulse to redress what they saw as the wrongs of foreign policy in a very personal way. In 1979, they successfully overcame bureaucratic red tape and offered a home to the ethnically Chinese Du Cau family--husband, wife and badly malnourished baby--from Vietnam. A year later they took in a second family, a Cambodian mother and three of her surviving children. Having adjusted to Italian culture, the Clarks weren't overly worried, but unexpected issues cropped up, whether the harsh first introduction to winter or a distaste for milk. But more decisive than any cultural differences are the differences in experience. Clark describes in gripping detail the suffering of the Cambodian family under the terrifying regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, and the diverse ways survivors came to terms with their tragic past. The children were enrolled in the local school, began to learn Italian and English, and the parents began the process of building new lives. As Clark writes, her book ""deals with our education as well as theirs."" A compassionate observer of these war-damaged people, Clark (Wystan & Chester), successfully conveys an inspiring story of the unselfish goodness and the abysmal evil encompassed by humanity. (Oct.)