by Vinh Nguyen
First published 2025
Vinh Nguyen escaped Vietnam by boat with his mother and siblings when Saigon fell on April 30, 1975. His father fled separately and then disappeared without a trace. Decades later, Nguyen begins hunting for answers about what happened to his father. His search reveals more questions than answers, with truths buried beneath layers of time and silence. Nguyen reconstructs his family's story by gathering fragments of memory and testimony scattered across multiple generations and countries. Family members have guarded their secrets in broken hearts and quiet refusals to speak. The author takes readers through empty refugee camps that once housed displaced families, deserted homes left behind in the exodus, and alternate lives that never came to pass. Published as the Vietnam War's fiftieth anniversary approaches, this memoir sheds light on the refugee stories that disappeared beneath the war's wreckage.
Genres: biography, literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, memoir, family-drama
Vibes: fragmented, haunting, intimate, introspective, poignant, reflective
Tropes: family-mystery, fragmented-narrative, generational-silence, search-for-truth, unreliable-memory
Setting: Vietnam, Saigon, Refugee camps
Period: 1975, April 30, 1975, Vietnam War era, Post-war period
272 pages · Paperback · HarperCollins Publishers
Content warnings: death, war