When I was a young child, our church sponsored several Cambodian refugee families. I understood that they left everything and arrived with nothing, but I was too young to understand why. War and politics are complicated and often never make sense. Memoirs bring a human perspective to history, telling stories that we need to hear and not forget. Under the Naga Tail is a well-written and captivating story about one man’s experience as a youth during the Cambodian Civil War. I was drawn in by the imagery of the mythology that opened the book and introduced Cambodian culture. I appreciated the family tree, provided as a reference so that the storyline doesn’t become bogged down explaining a large family. The first chapter richly described Cambodian traditions and way of life and set the stage for a moving story.