Beyond the Blue
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
Two Worlds. Two Women. One Love.
In 1975, an American girl named Genevieve loses her mother when a plane full of orphans crashes in war-ravaged Vietnam. Miles away in the countryside, seven-year-old Lan, a Vietnamese girl, is forced out of her family home by her own brother who has joined the Viet Cong. Worlds apart, these two girls come into womanhood struggling to recover a sense of family–until their journeys suddenly converge.
Lan has grown up in the harsh realities of post-war Vietnam, but she yearns for a better life for her children. Meanwhile, Genevieve marries and, faced with infertility, decides to adopt a child from the country her own mother loved so deeply. But the uncertainty and risk of international adoption threatens to overwhelm both women before their hearts and their families can be healed.
Beyond the Blue is the story of enormous losses, unthinkable choices, and the transforming power of God's love for the children of the world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The Vietnam War shatters the lives of two families thousands of miles apart in this uneven novel by Gould (Garden of Dreams). In 1975, 10-year-old American Gen experiences terrible heartache when her mother, who has gone to Vietnam to adopt a young boy, is killed in a war-related plane crash. Meanwhile, in Vietnam seven-year-old Lan witnesses her nation's bloody civil war splitting her own family right down the middle, resulting in displacement and destitution. Gould nimbly follows the two characters to adulthood, when Lan's intense poverty forces her to make the difficult choice to give two of her children up for adoption, and the infertile Gen comes to Vietnam with her husband, Jeff, to adopt them. The pacing begins to drag halfway through, as Gen and Jeff experience innumerable delays and complications with the Vietnamese government. Despite the slow momentum, many readers will appreciate this emotionally satisfying story of hope, adoption and new beginnings.
