Lady Borton

The extraordinary stories in After Sorrow are of a kind we have not heard before: stories of women who smuggled weapons under vats of fish sauce, concocted camouflage from banana leaves, dug tunnels, carried messages through enemy territory, gave away their children to keep them safe, all the while tending to the daily work of village life -- providing food, burying and visiting the dead, and observing religious holidays. Drawing on twenty-five years of work in Viet Nam, Borton achieves an unprecedented intimacy with its people and lets their voices set the tone of reconciliation and renewal.

After Sorrow is published in Viet Nam by The Gioi (World) Publishers (www.thegioipublishers.com.vn) in Vietnamese under the title Tiep Sau Noi Buon and in French as Après le Chagrin.

"Humane, angry, loving, smart, relentless, sweet, brave, caring—these words don’t begin to convey my enthusiasm for Lady Borton’s splendid After Sorrow. All that can be done, I suppose, is to issue this plea: Read it."

"After Sorrow ought to be required reading in both houses of Congress. It provides an important corrective to our scanty and all too often misinformed historical view of the Vietnamese war. Lady Borton is an amazing woman."
"I knew how the Vietnamese died. Seldom did I know how they lived. I saw mostly their wonderfully made artifacts—hooches, waterwheels, baskets, and bridges—in bombed-out villages. I’ve wanted to know for years how they lived, how they fared as fighters what they thought about us, what they talked about. In After Sorrow, Lady Borton’s writing skill and personal courage have given me the answers, and I’m grateful."
"In these pages we come to know some valiant Vietnamese women who fought the Americans and others who once fought the French; their stories [are] astonishing. One of the many accomplishments of After Sorrow, although not intended, … is to make us love the American who wrote it, a Quaker who was in Viet Nam during the war and has returned often. What a heroic spirit she possesses and what a journey she leads us on."
"Compelling ... [After Sorrow] offers a rare … glimpse into the Vietnamese culture and soul."
"This gently probing writer probably gained more comprehension of war and what it does to people on all sides than the generals and politicians who direct wars."
"A truly remarkable book."
"Gentle and unsparing."
"Borton’s book is rare for its honest, straightforward look at the ordinary people we fought and their accomplishments and sufferings, [and] for its avoidance of overt polemic, moralizing, or recrimination."
"[Borton’s] beautifully modulated memoir is less about the war itself than about the unique character of the village women: their formalized social interaction, use of traditional medicine, food-gathering and preparation and the Buddhist beliefs that guide their behavior. Borton’s gently compelling narrative follows the rhythm of the seasons and weather patterns and records the jarring advent of Western-style consumerism with the appearance of jeans, tennis shoes, motorcycles and VCRs. The author conversed with Vietnamese women fluently in their own language and thus is able to present fuller portraits than could be found elsewhere in English."