Awards

• Short-listed for Eisner Awards 2018 (United States)
• Short-listed for The Harvey Awards 2018 (United States)
• Winner of Booklist: Notable Books 2018 (United States)
• Winner of Ringo Award 2018 (United States)
• Winner of San Francisco Public Library's 2018 selection for 'One City One Book' program 2018 (United States)
• Winner of San Francisco Public Library's 2018 selection for `One City One Book' program 2018 (United States)
• Winner of The American Book Awards 2018 (United States)

Overview

""A book to break your heart and heal it."" - Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer ? 4 starred reviews ? Booklist, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Shelf Awareness An ABA Indies Introduce Winter/ Spring 2017 Selection A Summer 2017 Indie Next Selection Now in paperback, Thi Bui's critically acclaimed and beautifully illustrated story of her family's journey from their war-torn home in Vietnam to their new lives in America. Exploring the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has on a child and family, Bui documents the difficulties immigrants face as they build new lives for themselves. At the heart of Bui's story is a universal struggle: adjusting to life as a first-time mother. With haunting, poetic writing and breathtaking art, The Best We Could Do examines the strength of family, the importance of identity, and the meaning of home, providing inspiration to all who search for a better future while longing for a simpler past.

Full Product Details

9781419718786

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Reviews

In The Best We Could Do, Bui poignantly depicts her parents' journey and struggle from war-torn Vietnam in comic form-and it's one book you can't miss. Medium

How much of ME is my own and how much is stamped into my blood and bone, predestined? Posed at the end of Thi Bui's graphic memoir, this is the persistent, yearning question underlying this quietly heartbreaking book. Thi Bui chronicles her family's journey from Vietnam to America, as well as her own transformation from daughter to mother. Stunningly self-assured, this is epic, intimate history rendered in understated words and images -- Kate Tuttle, Vulture In The Best We Could Do, Bui poignantly depicts her parents' journey and struggle from war-torn Vietnam in comic form-and it's one book you can't miss. Medium This is a stunning graphic novel that is not only enjoyable but important. It's a memoir about Thi's story of immigration, family, and hardship. It is a book that proves yet again how powerful the graphic novel medium can be in creating empathy and understanding. Tillie Walden, author of On a Sunbeam' In telling the story of her childhood in the U.S. and, later, the birth of her son, Bui explores her relationship with her mother and father, reflecting on how their experiences shaped them as individuals. The Chicago Reader online ...a cinematic epic, following several generations through the travails of immigration and emotional dislocation. PBS NewsHour Online The book delves as much into her family's history as it does Vietnam's; traumatic things her parents had seen as children and young adults in the years before and during the war... For now, she's reconciled her story with her parents' - and she says hopes her book can provide a starting point for others to do the same. All Things Considered, NPR

In The Best We Could Do, Bui poignantly depicts her parents' journey and struggle from war-torn Vietnam in comic form-and it's one book you can't miss. Medium This is a stunning graphic novel that is not only enjoyable but important. It's a memoir about Thi's story of immigration, family, and hardship. It is a book that proves yet again how powerful the graphic novel medium can be in creating empathy and understanding. Tillie Walden, author of On a Sunbeam' In telling the story of her childhood in the U.S. and, later, the birth of her son, Bui explores her relationship with her mother and father, reflecting on how their experiences shaped them as individuals. The Chicago Reader online

Author Information

Thi Bui was born in Việt Nam three months before the end of the American War and came to the United States in 1978 as part of the “boat people” wave of refugees from Southeast Asia. Her debut graphic memoir, The Best We Could Do (Abrams ComicArts, 2017), has been selected as UCLA’s Common Book for 2017, a National Book Critics Circle finalist in autobiography, an Eisner Award finalist in Reality-Based Work, and made several “best of 2017” book lists, including Bill Gates’s top five picks. Bui is also the Caldecott Honor–winning illustrator of A Different Pond, a picture book by the poet Bao Phi (Capstone, 2017). Her short comics can be found online at The Nib, Reveal News, PEN America, and BOOM California. Bui taught high school in New York City and was a founding teacher of Oakland International High School, the first public high school in California for recent immigrants and English learners. Since 2015, she has been a faculty member of the MFA in Comics program at the California College of the Arts. Bui lives in the Bay Area.

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