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A recent speech by Gary Bauer from the conservative Family Research Council decried the decline of traditional family values as "a moral earthquake in our society." But what are "traditional family values?" How are family values -- and the realities that shape them -- really changing? Are all the changes really for the worse? Seasoned journalist Perdita Huston spent four years responding to these questions by going to the primary source: families themselves. Families As We Are includes interviews with and photographs of families from Brazil to Jordan, Sweden to Thailand. Huston's conversations, often with several family members of different generations, lead her to conclude that while the changes in families "may look like breakdown to those facing backwards, it looks like renovation to those facing the future." In an increasingly complex world, family structures have become more diverse, and often more democratic, but no less strong. In Egypt, Huston finds an extended family striving to stay together and balance modern and traditional ways as the dire need for jobs threatens to pull them apart. In Bangladesh she discovers a new form of family amid the brothels where poverty and forced urbanization encourage the prostitution of women, who join together to support each other financially and emotionally, creating a safe space where they can raise their children. "The families herein have been dislocated or exploited by a variety of factors, " writes Huston, "their attempts to rebuild, to return to the haven of family, or create another, tell us that the bonds of family -- a caring supportive group -- are far from weak, or disappearing.

A breathtaking true story of a rescue mission undertaken by a young woman and her family in one of the most repressive countries in the world. Helie Lee often had heard her grandmother speak of an uncle, lost decades ago when he was a child during the family's daring escape from North Korea. As an adult, he was still living there under horrid conditions. When her grandmother began to ail, Helie became determined to reunite her with her eldest son, despite tremendous odds. Helie's mission became even more urgent when she realized that her first book, the bestselling novel Still Life with Rice, about the family's escape, might have angered the North Korean government and put her uncle in danger. Pushing through rivers and forests, fighting the cold, bribing and manipulating border guards, gangsters, and secret service agents, Helie and her father finally achieve their goal. But there are many hurdles. Her uncle is forced to make a harrowing choice: leave his North Korean family behind or continue to live in oppression and starvation away from his beloved mother. And Helie has to face her deep, sometimes ambivalent, emotions about her identity in the family and as a Korean American woman. Unmarried and outspoken, she struggles in Korea, where women marry early and keep silent, and writes eloquently about the landscape there, both literal and cultural. She comes through a heartbreaking love affair only to face an intense and confusing relationship with the Guide--the man who, despite being crude and macho, ultimately helps to save her uncle and eventually his extended family through several daring acts of heroism. In the Absence of Sun is a riveting adventure story and apowerful tale of family bonds and reunion. "An eerie fear crawled through my flesh as I stood on the Chinese side of the Yalu River, gazing across the murky water into one of the most closed-off and isolated countries in the world. I couldn't believe it.