An Immigrant's Song

How do we become who we are, what shapes our identities?

Does changing the physical landscape of our lives break the chains that tie us to our past?

I grew up under a political system that did not allow citizens to think independently or speak freely. Inside my family, uncomfortable subjects and emotions were avoided. For years I yearned to break away, to leave behind the world based on conformity and lies, and to escape the stifling environment of my family's life. Both wishes became reality when I left my country of birth and my family of origin to come to the United States-to live on my own, to live free. Yet I discovered over the years that the world I had left behind had not entirely left me.

This memoir began as an attempt to preserve my family's history, but in the process became much more. A return to the landscapes of memory-both tender and difficult-revealed a deeper meaning to early experiences, and with it, an understanding that not everything needs to be resolved in order to accept the past.

An Immigrant's Song is a story of memory, identity, and the long journey toward becoming oneself-across borders, across time, and across the invisible lines that shape our lives.