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Books by Oanh

Oanh Ngo Usadi’s memoirs examine the search for home across borders, cultures, and generations. Her work blends personal history with cultural reflection, offering readers intimate stories grounded in larger historical moments.

Each book may be read on its own, yet together they trace a life shaped by migration, language, food, and resilience. Available in print, audio, and digital formats:

Universal Bookstore

Part travelogue, part family history, and part cultural exploration, Hawker Dreams reflects on what it means to build a sense of home in a global city.

Set in Singapore, where nearly a third of the population is foreign‑born, the memoir traces Oanh Ngo Usadi’s life as an expatriate navigating language, class, food culture, and belonging. Through hawker centers and family stories, the book explores how identity evolves across borders—and how the idea of “home” can remain both elusive and deeply rooted.

A Moth Staff Pick, Hawker Dreams has been featured at national book festivals and adapted into essays appearing in major U.S. newspapers.

Universal Bookstore, Audible

A deeply moving memoir of war, escape, and reinvention, Of Monkey Bridges and Bánh Mì Sandwiches chronicles one family’s flight from Việt Nam and their journey toward becoming American in a small Texas town.

With warmth and sharp insight, Oanh Ngo Usadi recounts her childhood in the Mekong Delta, the perilous refugee escape, and the challenges of rebuilding life in a place both unfamiliar and full of possibility. The story weaves together food, memory, and family bonds, revealing how survival is sustained not only by courage, but by humor and love.

Both a Wall Street Journal and Amazon bestseller, available wherever books are sold.

Praise for Of Monkey Bridges and Bánh Mì Sandwiches

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