Read more
An extraordinary, original and heartbreaking debut novel about the bonds that connect people even when separated by borders or death itself, from a thrilling new voice. There are the goodbyes and then the fishing out of the bodies - everything in between is speculation. One night, not long after the last American troops leave Vietnam, siblings Anh, Thanh and Minh flee their village and embark on a perilous boat journey to Hong Kong. Their parents and four younger siblings make the crossing in another vessel but as weeks go by it becomes clear that only one party has survived the voyage. Anh, Thanh and Minh suddenly find themselves alone in the world, without family or home. They travel on, navigating refugee camps and resettlement centres until, by a twist of fate, they arrive in Thatcher''s Britain. Here they must somehow build new lives with only each other to turn to, but will that be enough in a place that doesn''t seem to want them? In this piercing debut, the siblings'' faltering journey is deftly interwoven with the voice of their lost younger brother, Dao, following them from a place between the living and the dead, and the records of an unknown researcher intent on gathering together the strands of their story. Revelatory and inventive, Wandering Souls paints a heart-wrenching portrait of a family in unimaginable adversity while exploring the power of stories to heal generational wounds. It heralds the arrival of an essential new voice in fiction.
Report
'I raced through it. Beautiful, brilliant, unflinching' R. F. KUANG
'This lean, affecting book packs a mighty punch and heralds a dazzling new talent' OBSERVER
'Powerful ... a bold debut that breaks new ground' SUNDAY TIMES
'A deeply humane and genre-defying work of love and uncompromising hope through a long-overdue portrayal of Vietnamese life in the UK' OCEAN VUONG
'A heartbreaking novel ... a deeply affecting reckoning with history' i-D MAGAZINE
'A poignant saga with its grieving, beating heart firmly in the right place, and heralds the arrival of an ambitious and promising new talent' GUARDIAN
'A powerful story of courage, love and unwavering hope' MARIE CLAIRE
'Something special - a polyvocal novel, an essay on inherited trauma and a quiet metafiction about telling stories we don't own' NEW YORK TIMES
'Meticulously researched and beautifully imagined ... deeply affecting' TASH AW
'As relevant now as it ever was. You won't get through this without your heart breaking' AnOther
'Deeply moving and deeply generous ... I cried reading it' YARA RODRIGUES FOWLER
'A searing, sweeping and intimate story of such heart and scope' RACHEL LONG
'Historical epic Wandering Souls ... [offers] a very different take on the immigrant experience' VOGUE
'An enormously evocative portrait of dispossession' FINANCIAL TIMES
