The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir
Reviews

Publishers Weekly (starred review):
“Moving, unforgettable . . . readers will delight at how intimately they have become a part of this formerly strange culture.”

Anne Fadiman:
"This is the best account of the Hmong experience I’ve ever read—powerful, heartbreaking, and unforgettable.”

Asian by the Book, ThingsAsian.com:
“All who read this book are richer for having received the gift of what she has written.”

Booklist:
“Beautiful . . . provid[es] a long-overdue contribution to the history and literature of ethnic America.”

City Pages:
“A tale as poetic as it is informative.”

Entertainment Weekly:
“A narrative packed with the stuff of life.”

Feminist Review:
“Splendorous . . . An achievement that will resonate through the annals of history.”

Hmong Times:
“Yang’s love and devotion to her family and the Hmong people shines on every page. . . . A necessary read about the human experience.”

Kirkus:
“Inspiring . . . Yang has performed an important service in bringing readers the stories of a people whose history has been shamefully neglected.”

Hmong Today:
“[Yang will] be the first Hmong female author . . . finally putting Hmong stories on the shelves alongside stories from the rest of the world.”

Library Journal (starred review):
“A natural storyteller. Yang chronicles her family’s journey and draws the reader into the Hmong culture.”

Minneapolis Star Tribune:
“[The Latehomecomer] is the love story of [Yang’s] parents, a gripping tale of adventure and escape, a history lesson of the Hmong people dating to their years in China, a tribute to Yang's beloved grandmother and a window into Hmong funeral customs. . . . Thanks to Yang, the grandmother will not be forgotten. And neither will this book.”

Minnesota Literature:
“At times both tragic and inspiring, The Latehomecomer honors Yang’s grandmother and gives a voice to a seemingly silent population living among us.”

St. Paul Pioneer Press:
“[Yang] tells her family’s story with outstanding beauty and lyricism.”

Twin Cities Daily Planet:
“Heartfelt and marked by inspiring insight into human life.”

Minnesota State Senator Mee Moua:
“The Latehomecomer is a wonderful journey into the very personal experiences of its author, and it is also a story about so many of us. Reading this book is about experiencing the Hmong American transformation.”

Lee Pao Xiong, Director of the Center for Hmong Studies at Concordia University:
“A powerful book documenting the refugee experience that I believe, one day, my children will read to their children.”

Dr. Paul Hillmer, Director of the Hmong Oral History Project at Concordia University:
“A moving saga, The Latehomecomer is both sweeping and intimate—an elegant, evocative story of a family, a way of life, a culture, a people.”

Cris Beam:
“Across jungles, refugee camps, and oceans, The Latehomecomer is a journey to the center of everything: one’s fast-held understanding of home.”

Dr. Gary Yia Lee:
“Yang turns her family’s odyssey into a full adventure of survival in the face of adversity. It is a triumph of the human spirit that refuses to capitulate, to give up hope, that finds a way to start all over again from scratch, and, above all, inspires others to do the same.”

Honor Moore:
“In telling the story of her Hmong family’s flight from genocide in the jungles of Laos and poverty in the refugee camps of Thailand to achieve a safe life in America, Yang has fashioned a bittersweet and engrossing epic that is mythic in its beauty, tenderness, and power.”

Stephen O’Connor:
“This is a wise, important, and beautiful book—an evocation of extraordinary human courage and the inspiring strength of familial love.”

Patricia O’Toole:
“An impressive debut by a writer with an enchanting voice, The Latehomecomer reveals all that is worth knowing about endurance, the power of a family’s love, and hope in the face of desperation.”

From Booksellers and Librarians…

LaDeDa Books & Beans Inc.:
“The story of [Yang’s] family, and her people is powerful.”

Blakeley Beatty, Thyme Worn Treasures (Rice Lake, Wisconsin)
“[An] insightful, educational, poignant and beautiful story of a family and the Hmong people. . . . It is one of the best books I’ve read that truly shows what the human spirit is all about!”

Sally Wizik Wills, Sister Wolf Books:
“It’s good to be reminded that the heritage as immigrants that many of us share has common themes, regardless of ethnic group or country of origin. However, most immigrants, including my grandparents, had an ‘old country.’ Hmong immigrants such as Yang and her family, left no old country behind. As an ethnic minority, they have a history of moving from place to place, never really belonging. When they came to the United States after fighting of the side of the United States in the secret war in Indo-China, they were looking for a place to call home. In The Latehomecomer, Yang relates the story of their journey. Her beautifully written account—sometimes humorous, often touching—gives important insights into the Hmong experience.”

Karlan Sick, New York Public Library (retired)
“This is an unusual sort of memoir because it is about the author’s family and their struggle to find a home. . . . Easily read, this fine book could be recommended to high school readers as well as adults.”

R. Skiba, Oracle Public Library:
“A beautiful story and very well written. K. K. Yang is a true professional in the literary field.”