Kao Kalia Yang will be discussing her book, The Latehomecomer, on KFAI’s Write On Radio, 11 a.m. this Thursday. Craig Cox reviewed the book in the summer edition of MOQ.

Thirty years ago, Kao Kalia Yang’s still-teenage parents began their new life together by fleeing Pathet Lao soldiers who were intent on wiping out the Hmong in Laos, and her stunning memoir traces their refugee journey through wretched camps in Thailand (where she was born) to the family’s arrival in St. Paul. Equally adept at recounting the young family’s harrowing escape across the Mekong River or drilling deeply into the mixed emotions of her refugee childhood, Yang invites us inside the Hmong diaspora in a way few other writers have dared.

At the heart of this chronicle is Yang’s affection for her family -- her courageous parents, who struggled for eight years to make their way to America; her crippled older sister, Dawb, who watched over her despite her own infirmities; and especially her paternal grandmother, whose shamanic powers and improbable strength united the extended family throughout its brutal ordeal.

More than a memoir, more than a history, The Latehomecomer is a persuasive argument for the power of love.

The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang (Coffee House Press, $14.95) www.coffeehousepress.org

Write On Radio airs every Thursday, 11 a.m. to noon, on KFAI, 90.3 FM Minneapolis and 106.7 FM St. Paul, and live on the web at www.kfai.org.