The family’s prosperity comes to an end, however, when Anh’s father loses the family’s money-as well as the savings of several of his brothers-on farming and real estate ventures that fail. Anh and his brother Khoa attend primary school, quickly adapting to their new environment. His parents launch a garment sewing business that sees them prospering enough to help other Vietnamese relatives and members of the community, many of whom come to live with them for long or short periods of time.

Soon, Anh’s family find their feet in their new adoptive city of Sydney. The family begins a new life in Australia, the country that offers them asylum as refugees. They are rescued by a German merchant ship, which brings them to safety. The journey proves more perilous than they could have ever imagined: on the small fishing boat on which the family makes their escape, they barely evade Vietnamese patrol boats, are almost shipwrecked in a violent storm, and are captured by pirates, who strip them of all their valuables and the few provisions they had brought with them. They are accompanied by over thirty members of their extended family, as well as family friends. His father and mother have decided to flee the country, taking Anh and his baby brother Khoa with them. Anh Do is then only two-and-a-half years old. In the aftermath of the war, and under the grip of a repressive Communist regime, the country’s population suffers through hardship and poverty. It is the late 1970s in Saigon, Vietnam, and rhe Vietnam War has recently ended.

The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do