New Memoir Chronicles a Four-Country Journey of Exile, Reunion, and Home

A new memoir by Yvonne M. Wilbraham, The House with Open Doors: From Jakarta to Four Countries, offers a powerful account of displacement, survival, and the long search for belonging. Covered by AP News and featured across NBC, CBS, and ABC affiliates, the book follows Wilbraham’s family after they were forced to flee Jakarta during Indonesian independence, carrying only one suitcase each.

The memoir spans refugee life in the Netherlands, immigration to South Dakota, and a remarkable reunion in Bali thirty‑two years later, when a hotel worker helped reconnect Wilbraham’s mother with the four sisters she lost during exile. Through stories of travel, work, and cultural identity, Wilbraham explores how families rebuild after trauma and how home can be rediscovered across continents and decades.

The House with Open Doors is available now on Amazon.

About the Author

Yvonne M. Wilbraham is a memoirist and storyteller whose life spans four countries and four decades. Exiled from Jakarta at age five, she later immigrated to the United States, where her cross‑cultural experiences shaped her understanding of resilience, identity, and belonging. Her work has been featured on AP News and major U.S. network affiliates. She is represented by Bright Key PR