175
Book · 2017
The Refugees
Eight stories depict the lives of Vietnamese immigrants and their families across California and Vietnam as they navigate displacement, memory, and longing.
Your call
Already know it? Recommend it too.
Details
Around the Web
Nguyen’s slice-of-life approach is precise without being clinical, archly humorous without being condescending, and full of understanding; many of the stories might have been written by a modern Flaubert, if that master had spent time in San Jose or Ho Chi Minh City.
From Kirkus Reviews The collection is full of refugees, whether from external turmoil – natural or manmade disasters – or from a deeper, more internal conflict between even those who are closest to each other. With anger but not despair, with reconciliation but not unrealistic hope, and with genuine humour that is not used to diminish anyone, Nguyen has breathed life into many unforgettable characters, and given us a timely book.
Yiyun Li on The Guardian Each searing tale in Nguyen’s follow-up to the Pulitzer-winning The Sympathizer is a pressure cooker of unease, simmering with unresolved issues of memory and identity for the Vietnamese whose lives were disrupted by the “American War.”
From Publishers Weekly
1 / 3
Why people recommend it
No reasons shared yet. Tell others what makes this title worth their time.