In the shadow of darkness, a nine-year-old boy and his parents join thirty-four others in fleeing the Communist regime. Their escape begins on a small, ill-equipped fishing boat as they traverse the treacherous waters of the South China Sea. The anxiety of not having enough food, water, and fuel compound with the constant threat of Thai pirates create tremendous fear, yet the desire to find freedom drives them onward. Despite the horrific encounters on the high seas, these boatpeople were not prepared for what they would have to face in an Indonesian refugee camp during their seven years of waiting—waiting to be accepted in the free world. This long and arduous journey—from 1989 to 2006—is told through the eyes of the author as a child, a teenager, and later, as an adult. Northern Wind: Memoirs of an Asylum Seeker is a heartwarming story teeming with extraordinary love, courage, and sacrifice—the sacrifice one is willing to make for his child. Or for freedom.
