Ease Reading-Find Your Next Favorite Book

Hot Search

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

le ly hayslip jay wurts

... Show More
It is said that in war heaven and earth change places not once, but many times. When Heaven and Earth Changed Places is the haunting memoir of a girl on the verge of womanhood in a world turned upside down.

The youngest of six children in a close-knit Buddhist family, Le Ly Hayslip was twelve years old when U.S. helicopters landed in Ky La, her tiny village in central Vietnam. As the government and Viet Cong troops fought in and around Ky La, both sides recruited children as spies and saboteurs. Le Ly was one of those children. Before the age of sixteen, Le Ly had suffered near-starvation, imprisonment, torture, rape, and the deaths of beloved family members—but miraculously held fast to her faith in humanity. And almost twenty years after her escape to America, she was drawn inexorably back to the devastated country and family she left behind. Scenes of this joyous reunion are interwoven with the brutal war years, offering a poignant picture of Vietnam, then and now, and of a courageous woman who experienced the true horror of the Vietnam War—and survived to tell her unforgettable story.

400 pages, Paperback

First published April 29,1989

This edition

Format
400 pages, Paperback
Published
November 1, 1993 by Plume
ISBN
9780452271685
ASIN
0452271681
Language
English

More editions

About the author

Profile Image for le ly hayslip

le ly hayslip

... Show More
Le Ly Hayslip is a Vietnamese-American writer, memoirist, and humanitarian, known for her work in rebuilding cultural bridges between Vietnam and the United States following the Vietnam War. Born in Ky La village, Vietnam, she endured a tumultuous childhood marked by war and personal hardship. At 12, American helicopters landed in her village, and at 14, she was tortured in a South Vietnamese prison for her "revolutionary sympathies."
After fleeing to Saigon, Hayslip worked in various jobs, including as a prostitute and drug courier, before marrying American contractor Ed Munro in 1969. Following his death, she married Dennis Hayslip, though this second marriage was troubled by domestic violence.
Hayslip's memoirs, When Heaven and Earth Changed Places (1989) and Child of War, Woman of Peace (1993), recount her experiences in Vietnam and the challenges of adapting to American life. She founded the East Meets West Foundation, a charitable organization focused on improving health and welfare in Vietnam. In 1995, she received the California State Assembly award for her humanitarian efforts. Her life was adapted into the 1993 film Heaven & Earth, directed by Oliver Stone, where she made a cameo appearance.

Readers also enjoyed

Community Reviews

Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
32(32%)
4 stars
30(30%)
3 stars
38(38%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
100 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Ageeko
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
I found this a moving story of a teenage girl facing the effects of the growing conflict around her village in Central Vietnam during the end of the French and beginning of the American war. Wanting self-determination, but ultimately buffeted between the Viet Cong, the army of the South, and ultimately the Americans, decisions came to be made just on the basis of survival. The author painted a picture of this life with all of its inherent conflicts without judgment. I read this while I was traveling in Vietnam and it added a piece to the picture of that time and place that I found very helpful in appreciating Vietnam today.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Jronvo
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
Relentlessly descriptive account of the horrors experienced around the events of the Vietnam War. Beautiful companion after having read Viet Than Nguyen's Nothing Ever Dies.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Hinatara
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
A powerful memoir about a Vietnamese American woman who lived through the Vietnam War as a young Vietnamese girl in the 1960s. I loved Le Ly Hayslip’s honest, visceral descriptions of what it felt like living in Vietnam as well as the horrible impacts of war. She shares her raw, unfiltered perspective on watching family, friends, and community members get incarcerated and/or killed, living in a state of constant distrust and uncertainty about her safety and the safety of those she cares about, and experiencing torture and multiple instances of sexual assault in her early adolescence. Amidst this personal account of the Vietnam War she shares some conversations and reflections about the motivations of different forces within the war (e.g., the Viet Cong compared to the Republican Army in the south) as well as an overarching desire for peace.

I feel so grateful that Le Ly Hayslip wrote this memoir and shared her experience living through the Vietnam War. As a Vietnamese American whose parents immigrated to the United States, reading this memoir helps me feel closer to my heritage and my parents’ experience. I wish that accounts like these were incorporated more often into the education system in the United States, as opposed to predominantly reading books by white men and/or from white men’s perspectives. Hayslip writes with a lot of candor about what she went through, and I feel like her narrative is invaluable as a result. Some themes that stood out to me include the sheer atrocity of war and how it damaged so many people’s lives in Vietnam, as well as the colonization – especially the sexual colonization – enacted by soldiers from the United States and how proximity to these mostly white soldiers carried power, which sucks and made me despise white supremacy once again.

Totally recommend to those interested in learning about the Vietnam War from a woman who actually lived through it. At times I felt like the narrative was a bit slow during the beginning, especially the first part of her journey back to Vietnam as an adult. I also took some issue with some victim-blaming language against sex workers later on in the memoir, how Hayslip expressed a sentiment that sex workers who “chose” sex work are to blame for not making better choices, which felt like such an awful thing to express given the environmental conditions (e.g., white supremacy, imperialism) that may have necessitated sex work. Despite these small constructive critiques I still enjoyed this book a lot and possess renewed anti-war and anti-imperialism sentiment after reading it.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Wolf92
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
I always find it very hard to write (something like) a review about memoirs and autobiographies. It's someone's life, experiences and emotions and who am I to say anything about them. 
I have the same feeling again; this has been one of the most brutal books I have ever read and at the same time it made me cringe a lot. It seems to be too lenient towards the USA and the undeniable (humanitarian) crimes they committed in Vietnam. I am not sure how much of this leniency is Hayslip's point of view and just how much her (american) co-author's (Wurts). 
The writing style wasn't my favorite, and the print I read was awful but it is definitely a powerful book, about the life of a strong woman in/from a devastated by war country.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Oreki_Ouzen
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
In the epilogue to this book--a tale of seemingly unending devastation; one woman's experience with the total warping and decimation of the entire country of Vietnam, in which each page seems to offer a fresh perspective on horror and the fresh ripping-apart of loving families by both "sides" as it were, of the war--the author, Le Ly Hayslip, offers these simple paragraphs:

"In this book, I have tried to show how we peasants survived--and still survive today--as both makers and victims of our war. I have shared with you the face of battle, the shape of terror, the shades of love, and the colors of joy as I have seen them."

and, later:

"I can only say what I myself have learned: that life's purpose is to grow. We have time in abundance--an eternity, in fact--to repeat our mistakes. We need only correct them once, however--to learn our lesson and hear the song of enlightenment--to break the chain of vengeance forever. If we can do this personally, no matter how many others follow, our own hearts will at last find peace."

These paragraphs capture the sentiment of this book perfectly. From a narrative so bursting with human cruelty and suffering, somehow the reader comes away with a sense of peace and purpose, with a belief in possibility of lives lived well and in redemption. Although the book is imbued with the very specific religious and cultural biases of Ms. Hayslip, a self-described "Buddhist peasant" who grew up in a struggle for survival, it says more about humanity and about war than nearly any I've ever read.

In the end, the reader is forced to wonder whether, if a person who has seen and experienced what the author has can end up prioritizing forgiveness, healing, and hopeful work for the future, any of the rest of us have any excuse to do otherwise?
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
zaraku
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
I have no words for this book. Honestly just an incredible work of nonfiction showing the true and misunderstood horrors many Vietnam civilians experienced during the war and after. Would highly recommend this book - it’s brutal and honest and just something everyone would benefit from reading. Adding the movie to my watch list asap.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Ageshiro
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
If you are planning a trip to Vietnam....this book is a must read. Author wrote her memoir in 1989, telling of her childhood during the Vietnam War. Family members served on different sides. Continues to her life as a young woman surviving in the war torn country....and then her escape to the United States. She returns to Vietnam in 1986, to visit family and to gather material for her book. How had life changed? Who do you trust. I thank Nancy B. for recommending this book. What will we find when we visit Vietnam this November??
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Caiow
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
I wish every American could read this fascinating account of life in Vietnam before, during, and after what we call "the Vietnam War." Hayslip provides insight not only into traditional Vietnamese society, what that society became, and the war itself, but also into what it takes to make and keep peace. In her own words: "In this book, I have tried to show how we peasants survived--and still survive today--as both makers and victims of our war... Most of you who read this book have not lived my kind of life. By the grace of destiny or luck or god, you do not know how hard it is to survive, although now you have some idea. Do not feel sorry for me--I made it; I am okay. Right now, though, there are millions of other poor people around the world--girls, boys, men and women--who live their lives the way I did in order to survive. Like me, they did not ask for the wars that swallowed them. They ask only for peace--the freedom to love and live a full life--and nothing more. I ask only that you open your heart and mind to them..."

0 0 Reply
Leave a Review
You must be logged in to rate and post a review. Register an account to get started.