it is an intimate, universally human story, epic in scope, about the entwined paths of Americans and Vietnamese. It explores the ways in which love and connection heal trauma; and how the deeper story of war is always one of relationships." As in Monkey Bridge, The Lotus and the Storm deals with disjunction, war, trauma, loss, lives exiled, and the continuing weight of the past on the present. References External links Chapman University Faculty webpage Bridging the Gaps: Inescapable History in Lan Cao's Monkey Bridge Monkey bridge companion website Interview with Lan Cao, at the Los Angeles Review of Books Twitter @lancaowrites 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American women writers American women novelists American novelists of Asian descent American writers of Vietnamese descent American women lawyers College of William & Mary faculty Yale Law School alumni Mount Holyoke College alumni Vietnamese emigrants to the United States 1961 births Living people Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison people Novelists from Virginia Brooklyn Law School faculty English-language literature of Vietnam