A Blessing over Ashes : The Remarkable Odyssey of My Unlikely Brother

Fifield, Adam

ISBN 10: 0380976803 / ISBN 13: 9780380976805

Published by William Morrow, 2000

About this Item

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Blessing over Ashes : The Remarkable Odyssey of My Unlikely Brother
• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0380976803
• ISBN 13: 9780380976805
• Binding: hardcover
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

From a writer of insight, wit, and compassion
comes the remarkable story of a boy from the
killing fields of Cambodia who irrevocably
changed the life of an American family.

A Blessing Over Ashes

In clear vivid prose, Adam Fifield recaptures the snowy night when he, at the age of eleven, along with his mother, father, and younger brother, waited to welcome fifteen-year-old Soeuth into the family. The boy shuffled in, short and scrawny, a baseball cap shading his downcast eyes. He spoke not a word, yet a silent terror hovered around him.

The author describes the events of the months that followed: Soeuth's wariness and detachment; his fear of being seized in the night by his parents' ghosts; Adam's discovery of his new brother's amazing physical skills, like catching fish with his bare hands; and Soeuth's eventual and painful emergence from years of darkness. As Soeuth gradually adjusts to rural middle-class America, a world fantastically foreign from the horrors of his homeland, a bond is formed with his new brothers that would permanently affect them all.

In his senior year of high school, Soeuth leaves home, lured by an anesthetic world of drugs and alcohol. Over the next few years, the brothers drift apart, distracted by college, jobs, girlfriends. Then Soeuth finds out that the members of his Cambodian family -- whom, for fourteen years, he has presumed to be dead-are alive. The discovery is the beginning of a new journey -- one that reunites Soeuth with his long-lost brothers, sisters, and parents...and with his American brother Adam.

About the Author

Adam Fifield is a native of Vermont and a graduate of Bates College. He is a freelance writer whose work has appeared regularly in the Village Voice and In These Times, among other publications. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.