The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui

This was an incredibly moving graphic memoir, beautifully illustrated, about a family whose roots are in Vietnam, but who emigrate to America after the fall of Saigon in 1975.

I'm from the UK, so the Vietnam war isn't really part of our collective memory - we know about it from war movies or news articles or books, but I don't know anyone who fought there.  A long time ago I used to work with an Australian woman whose parents fled to Australia from Vietnam, but because I was younger and more self-absorbed and worried about seeming too prying, I never asked her anything about it.

The Best We Can Do has taught me a lot about the history of Vietnam and what the Vietnamese people on both sides of the conflict went through, as well as the aftermath, and in doing so I think it's taught me more about what refugees in general go through.  Books like this make you feel so lucky to be living the life you do.  There's a bit at the end that shows the actual refugee documentation photos that were taken of Thi and her family in a camp in Malaysia and I think that was the bit that affected me most of all.

As well as being a book about the impact of war and refugee status on families, this is also a book about becoming a parent and the changes it wreaks on your life.

I could hear echoes of my mother's voice speaking to me in my own childhood ... but I could feel the voice coming from my own throat.

This is such a mum thing to think and I can remember thinking exactly the same thing when my own children were born.

And the illustrations in this book are exquisite.  Just, so beautiful.  They're done in a kind of pen and ink / watercolour style and I could have sat looking at them all day.

Recommended for everyone, but I think this will especially strike a chord with parents.

5 stars