About this item
After job losses and the housing crash, the author and her family leave L.A. to start over in a most unlikely place: a nine-foot-wide back-alley house in one of Ho Chi Minh City's poorest districts, where neighbors unabashedly stare into windows, generously share their barbecued rat, keep cockroaches for luck, and ultimately help her find joy without Western trappings.Karin Esterhammer was an editor, writer, and travel columnist at the Los Angeles Times for fifteen years. She's been published in the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, and other publications. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, son, and three cats.
About the Author
"So Happiness to Meet You" won the Nautilus Book Awards Silver Medal for 2017.I was born in a backwater town in Oregon--Portland--where it rained throughout my entire childhood. I got a degree in journalism, figuring it would be a long, enduring career because--of course--people will ALWAYS read newspapers. I worked at the Los Angeles Times as an editor, writer, and travel columnist for 15 years. In between, I published essays in the books Chocolate for a Woman's Spirit and Chocolate for a Mother's Heart and wrote for Asia Life magazine, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Daily News, Orlando Sentinel and The Standard--China's Business Newspaper. Earlier in my career, I wrote for a bunch of tiny newspapers across the country that still owe me money.
