A little about us
LAP NGUYEN.
A person passionate about changing the lives of others. From a boy born in a poor rural village in the basin of the Red River Delta, enduring the ups and downs of Vietnamese history, after the historical events of the Vietnam War in 1975.
In that poor village, where the fields stretch and storks fly, the simple and vibrant life of intense childhood transformed the shy boy into someone passionate about learning and traveling all over the world.
The lessons he learned over the years were multiplied. His small dreams about culture, cuisine, and passion for helping others, accompanying those in need, were fulfilled for a better life.
His food and beverage businesses are places of learning and practice for young graduates and those in need. From those humble dreams, he wrote an autobiography about his journey, not just his journey but honest, delicate, and somewhat humorous stories that offer a different perspective on Vietnamese culture, history, and cuisine through his grandmother, simple mother, and resilient father – a Vietnamese veteran. There are also stories about the Vietnam War, a past that still leaves its marks.
Let’s help him find more strength to change the lives of others for a better future!”
JOYCE MARTIN.
Dr. Martin is a retired professor of applied social psychology. She has published two books with Gower on how companies can profit from using multiple intelligences in the workplace as well as applications published in trade and professional journals. She has also locally published How Are Your Kids Smart, a guide for helping parents to better understand the gifts their children have.
While narrative writing was not part of her early training, she tried her hand with a debut dystopian novel, The Age of Women which is set in a future time when the gender roles are totally reversed.
The final strand leading to coauthoring this book is her passion for travel. Dr. Martin has travelled to every continent and has lived and worked in Australia, North America, Europe and South America. It was this love of travel that brought her to Viet Nam and her encoutner with a tour guide who had the most amazing stories to share. Stories she encouraged him to ‘someday’ write down. It took another decade before the tour guide sent her his first efforts and she realised that while these were skeletal, the could be the foundation for a great book.
Working with these stories Dr. Martin used her research skills and emerging narrative powers to flesh out these skeletons. Working together for three years, the pair have produced a rigorous description of life in postwar Viet Nam. However, it is not the dull, dry recounting of events but a story that will make readers, laugh, cry and think again about what it means to persevere when the tides of life life you up and then wipe away everything you have achieved.