A sweeping memoir of displacement, resilience, and healing that reveals how belonging is shaped by experience rather than geography.
NEW YORK CITY, NY, UNITED STATES, February 9, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Author Yvonne M. Wilbraham announces the release of The House with Open Doors: From Jakarta to Four Countries: A Memoir of Displacement, Discovery and Finding Home, a powerful and deeply personal account of exile, survival, and the lifelong search for belonging. Spanning four countries and four decades, the memoir traces how political upheaval uprooted one family and how resilience, connection, and grace ultimately redefined the meaning of home.
The story begins in Jakarta, where Wilbraham’s earliest memories are filled with the scent of jasmine, humid air, and a childhood sense of safety that would soon disappear. At five years old, Indonesian independence forced her family into exile. Each family member carried a single suitcase as her mother said goodbye to four sisters, while both parents bore the unspoken trauma of Japanese prisoner of war camps they had never fully shared. In one moment, home became loss, and stability became movement.
From Indonesia, the family spent five years in a Dutch refugee camp, where survival required endurance, adaptability, and quiet strength. Wilbraham recounts the cold that seeped into the body, the shared bathrooms, and the daily improvisation needed to live with dignity under difficult conditions. She also reflects on moments of tenderness and courage, including her father’s quick action to save her legs after a childhood accident. These years shaped her understanding of resilience and the hidden costs of displacement.
When Australia rejected the family, accepting her Dutch father but not his Indonesian relatives, the United States became their refuge. Sponsored by the Presbyterian Church, they settled in Kadoka, South Dakota, where Wilbraham’s childhood unfolded in a world far removed from Jakarta. City people became country people, Indonesians became Dutch became American, and identity became layered rather than singular.
Through vivid scenes and moments of unexpected humor, the memoir captures the emotional complexity of growing up between cultures while searching for solid ground. Beyond exile and reunion, the memoir embraces a life fully lived. Wilbraham writes of travel, love, work, and discovery, from driving an Alfa Romeo through Tuscany to managing hundreds of challenging passengers on a Mediterranean cruise, to falling in love with a New Zealand cyclist whose patience left a lasting impression.
The book is now available secure your copy here: https://a.co/d/07oUdsK0
For review copies, interview requests, or additional information please contact:
Yvonne M. Wilbraham
BrightKey Pr
Yvonnewilbraham@gmail.com
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