In a Rocket Made of Ice: Among the Children of Wat Opot

Gutradt, Gail

ISBN 10: 0385353472 / ISBN 13: 9780385353472

Published by Knopf, 2014

About this Item

A clean, cared for item that is unmarked and shows limited shelf wear.

Seller Inventory # 4BQGBJ01253V

Bibliographic Details

• Title: In a Rocket Made of Ice: Among the Children of Wat Opot
• Publisher: Knopf
• Publication Date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385353472
• ISBN 13: 9780385353472
• Binding: hardcover
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

A beautifully told, inspiring true story of one woman’s volunteer experiences at an orphanage in rural Cambodia—a book that embodies the belief that love, compassion, and generosity of spirit can overcome even the most fearsome of obstacles.

Gail Gutradt was at a crossroads in her life when she learned of the Wat Opot Children’s Community. Begun with just fifty dollars in the pocket of Wayne Dale Matthysse, a former Marine Corps medic in Vietnam, Wat Opot, a temple complex nestled among Cambodia’s verdant rice paddies, was once a haunted scrubland that became a place of healing and respite where children with or orphaned by HIV/AIDS could live outside of fear or judgment, and find a new family—a place that Gutradt calls “a workshop for souls.”

Disarming, funny, deeply moving, In a Rocket Made of Ice gathers the stories of children saved and changed by this very special place, and of one woman’s transformation in trying to help them. With wry perceptiveness and stunning humanity and humor, this courageous, surprising, and evocative memoir etches the people of Wat Opot forever on your heart.

About the Author

Gail Gutradt has volunteered at the Wat Opot Children’s Community in Cambodia since 2005. Her stories, articles, and poems have appeared in the Japan-based Kyoto Journal, as well as in the Utne Reader and Ashé Journal. Her first Kyoto Journal article, “The Things We’ve Gone Through Together,” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She lives in Bar Harbor, Maine.