When Heaven and Earth Changed Places: A Vietnamese Woman's Journey from War to Peace

As it turned out, Hayslip was not in trouble: All those visitors who received authorization from the UN were customarily briefed on travel conditions. She noticed the desperate faces in Ho Chi Minh City and the shabby structures. Hailing a siclo, or bicycle-powered pedicab, she set out to find Anh. Traveling through the dark streets, she detected “repressed, desperate, and hostile” spirits (155). The pedicab drove down a blind alley.

At the age of 13, Hayslip was betrothed to a boy from a neighboring village. He was reported missing in action the following year. Given the suspicions of the Viet Cong, Hayslip had to flee to Danang. Her sister Ba found her a job as a housekeeper. However, she soon had to leave that job given the unwanted sexual advances of her employer. At her uncle’s home, she heard that something terrible had happened to her family in Ky La. Under cover of darkness, she returned there.

Her mother, who had been assigned sentry duty, had failed to detect an ambush of two Viet Cong soldiers. Those soldiers, who were killed, were the ones who had raped Hayslip.