Inside Out & Back Again
Book Summary
Through a series of poems, a young girl chronicles the life-changing year of 1975, when she, her mother, and her brothers leave Vietnam and resettle in Alabama.
Awards and Recognition
National Book Award (2011)
This book is about:
- Vietnamese Americans,
- Vietnam,
- Emigration and immigration,
- Immigrants,
- Novels in verse,
- History,
- Alabama,
- Fiction
NPR stories about Inside Out & Back Again
The Two-Way
Book Award Winner's Tale Echoes Those Told By Other Vietnamese Refugees
November 29, 2011 Thanhha Lai's novel for young people, Inside Out & Back Again, conveys the wonders of being rescued in 1975 during an operation led by the USS Kirk. Last year, NPR shared other tales of that operation from refugees and U.S. sailors.
Monkey See
'Salvage The Bones' Takes Top Fiction Honors At The National Book Awards
November 17, 2011 In a celebratory National Book Awards on Wall Street last night, Stephen Greenblatt took the nonfiction award for Swerve, while, in a surprise turn in fiction, Jesmyn Ward won for Salvage the Bones.

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