The Cricket War

In this memoir of a Vietnamese refugee in Canada, 11-year-old Tho Pham lives with his family in Saigon after the Communist takeover of South Vietnam. Desperate to avoid forced military service, Tho’s brother Vũ and his friend and neighbor Lâm slip out of the country to join the throngs of “boat people” attempting to escape. Tho’s turn comes as well, and soon he is on an overcrowded boat in the South China Sea, struggling to survive waves of pirates who take what little they have and abandon them to their fate. Desperate to avoid death, Tho stows away on one of the pirate ships, eventually surrendered to a German refugee rescue boat which takes him to a camp in the Philippines. Reunited with what remains of Lâm’s family, Tho learns that Vũ has settled in Canada with a sponsor, and he travels to Toronto to join him and begin a new life.

In clipped and uncomplicated prose, Tho Pha tells the extraordinary story of his life as a young boy caught up in the currents of modern history, adding to an already fulsome record of immigration stories contributing to an enduring Canadian mythology. His narration is clear-eyed and almost matter-of-fact, using a slightly stilted metaphor of childhood cricket fighting to frame his memories and emotions. While the story’s foreground is occupied by the refugees themselves, a cast of foreign NGO workers and benefactors helps illustrate the unprecedented international effort that went into saving many lives and helping them start anew overseas. A helpful pronunciation guide and synopsis of Vietnamese history provides useful background.