 We're going to do a reading, but it's going to be more of an acting out of part of the book. And these are my family members, and I don't want to do all the voices myself. So first I'm just going to introduce you to the characters. The best we could do is memoir, which as my mother says, means it's maybe 99% true. So on the left are my sisters, Lan and Bic. It's really important to remember the pronunciation of Bic. My mother Ma, my father Bo, and a three-year-old me. So I would love for someone of any gender to play my father as a young man, as an older man. And then if you wouldn't mind also doing the sound effects. Anybody feeling spry tonight? We've got microphones. Is that a hand I see? Was that yours? I saw a hand over here. Okay, great. Front row perfect. You're in a good spot. What is your name? Jimmy? Thank you, Jimmy. And then a smaller part as Bo's grandfather, the dapperly gentleman, and also this bit part as a neighbor. Anybody? Great. Hi, Justin. Okay, great. Justin's my colleague. All right. I need someone very talented to do a few voices here. Could you play Bo's grandmother? She's a bit of a grumpy woman, but for just reasons. A small part as this roommate woman, my sister Lan, my mother Ma, and why don't you also play my sister Bic? And me too. Anybody? Oh my gosh, thank you so much. Okay, do we have enough microphones? Do we have two? Can you? Oh my gosh. You're amazing. What's your name? Margo. Thank you. And who's playing? Justin is playing grandfather. Oh my gosh. Jimmy, are you mic'd up? Okay, thanks, Dad. And is that everybody? Okay, let's go. Here we go. So I'm going to take you across time and space to a South Vietnam that no longer exists to set the stage. It is 1955. The first Indochina war has ended. The French have lost their last foothold in Southeast Asia. And the international powers that B have divided this country that just fought for its independence into two, causing major upheaval for the people who live there. Suddenly a mass exodus of people from the north who are fleeing communism what they fear might come with communism to go to the south aided by the U.S. And a number of people from the south move to the north to follow Ho Chi Minh. My father at age 14 finds himself on one of those ships going from the north to the south. I imagine the awe and excitement that I felt for New York when I first moved there after college must be something like what my father felt when he arrived in Saigon in 1955. Bo and his grandfather were two bachelors exploring the big city. Money in their pockets, freedom on their minds. They strolled down Grand Avenues, ate at restaurants, and visited friends and relatives. When his grandfather wanted some time away from him. Here's some money. Go see a movie. Bo's grandmother arrived in Saigon separately on the last of the great ships from the north. Grandma, let's make a new home together. Bo's grandmother rented a flat with two other women, but fate would soon drive her back to her unfaithful husband. The south had a new prime minister named Ngó Dinh Xiam, who had yet to establish full control of the region. A Saigon had its own mafia called the Binh Xuyen, who controlled the casinos, the brothels, and the drug trade. Xiam's forces fought the Binh Xuyen in the streets of Saigon. One night, the fighting came right to the doorstep of Bo's grandmother, with her securities gone and scared of more violence. Bo's grandmother agreed to go back to her cheating husband. Grandma? And Bo had a family again. They pulled their money together and bought a little house for the equivalent of $5,000. It was really just a space between two other houses. Someone had topped it with a roof made of palm leaves. Inside they lined it with the cardboard to give it the semblance of a house. Yes, by that time they had added another story to it. It was still small and dirty. Do you remember it? I went to see the old house with my family in 2001, the time that Bo refused to go. Travis and I were newlyweds. I had an impulsive short haircut. The street had changed beyond recognition. Miraculously, an old neighbor still lived there, recognized my mother, and came out to talk to us. Aren't you Nam's wife? That's your house. That was Mr. Khan's house. No, that's Ms. Dao's house. We each had our own reaction to this homecoming. Lan already scouting ahead. Mai and Big the most excited. Me and Tham documenting and low of remembering. We didn't know the people there and we didn't go inside. Even standing right in front of our old house, I had to rely on other people's stories to picture how it was when we lived there. Lan and Big remember the alley where a friend lived, a lamp post that Lan walked into while reading, and the sidewalk where Big beat up a boy for harassing Lan, lacking memories of my own. I do research, lots of research. Hello, Thi. I brought you a video I found. The narration is only okay, but what I thought was neat was seeing footage of our old neighborhood. If you like it, I'll get you more. I know this is caricature, but lacking memories of my own, I have to depend on other people's stories. I still have the chessboard my father made when I was a kid and the wooden set of pieces we played with. Revisiting this game of war and strategy, I think about how none of the Vietnamese people in that video have a name or a voice. My grandparents, my parents, my sisters and me, we weren't any of the pieces on the chessboard. We were more like ants scrambling out of the way of giants, getting just far enough out of the way of danger to resume the business of living. Thank you so much to Margo, Justin, Jimmy. It's always so nice to hear the voices from new people and see them brought to life in a different way, in a unique way. So I'm going to bring up my dear friend Lauren Markham and we're just going to talk and we'll have some time for questions from the audience at the end.