Minh Anh lives on a special ward of a Saigon hospital, where both patients and staff call him Ka – Vietnamese for fish – because of the scaly, itchy, peeling skin that covers his body.
8000 miles away, Brenda loves Minh Anh like a son, and every year for the last 15, she has travelled to Vietnam to see him. Their lives are worlds apart, but year after year, their extraordinary friendship gets stronger – for Minh Anh, there is someone to look out for his interests; for Brenda, a chance to relive memories of her first visit to the country, with the husband who died tragically young.
Now Minh Anh has turned 18, it’s decision time for his doctors. Brenda wants to be sure that her friend has a secure future, but does she need him more than he needs her?
This is the disgusting and sorrowful things, isn’t it? Mummy you must be putting this loved child in the river at the birthing time. My eyes are crying for the sad.