The Best We Could Do

A national bestseller and American Book Award winner, The Best We Could Do is an intimate and poignant graphic novel portraying one family's journey from war-torn Vietnam from debut author Thi Bui. In what Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen calls "a book to break your heart and heal it," The Best We Could Do brings to life Thi Bui's journey of understanding and provides inspiration to all of those who search for a better future while longing for a simpler past. This beautifully illustrated and emotional story is an evocative memoir exploring the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has on a child and her family. Bui documents the story of her family's daring escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s, and the difficulties they faced building new lives for themselves. At the heart of Bui's story is a universal struggle: While adjusting to life as a first-time mother, she ultimately discovers what it means to be a parent-the sacrifices, the unnoticed gestures, and the depths of unspoken love. Despite how impossible it seems to take on the simultaneous roles of both parent and child, Bui pushes through. With haunting, poetic writing and breathtaking art, she examines the strength of family, the importance of identity, and the meaning of home. - National Book Critics Circle (NBCC)- FinalistABA Indies Introduce- WinterALA Notable Books Selection

Thi Bui was born in Vi-t Nam three months before the end of the American War and came to the United States in 1978 as part of the "boat people" wave of refugees from Southeast Asia. Her debut graphic memoir, The Best We Could Do (Abrams ComicArts, 2017), was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist in autobiography and an Eisner Award finalist in Reality-Based Work and has become a widely taught work of graphic nonfiction. Bui is also the Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator of A Different Pond, a picture book by poet Bao Phi (Capstone, 2017). Her short comics have appeared in The Nib, Reveal News, PEN America, and BOOM California. Bui taught high school in New York City and was a founding teacher of Oakland International High School, the first public high school in California for recent immigrants and English learners. She is a faculty member of the MFA in Comics program at California College of the Arts. Bui lives in the Bay Area.