by Eric Nguyen
First published 2022
Huong steps off the plane in New Orleans carrying nothing but hope and two young boys. Her husband Cong remains behind in Vietnam, and she sends him letters and tapes, believing their family will reunite in America. Months pass, then years. The letters go unanswered. Huong accepts that Cong will never come. She finds work, finds a new partner in a Vietnamese car salesman, and watches her sons grow up fatherless. Tuan seeks belonging with a Vietnamese gang, trying to grasp the heritage he barely remembers. His younger brother Binh becomes Ben, throwing himself into American life and discovering his sexuality. Each family member adapts differently to their new country. Their separate paths pull them in different directions until they risk losing each other entirely. Then catastrophe hits New Orleans, and the disaster forces Huong, Tuan, and Ben to rediscover what family means when everything else falls away.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: New Orleans, Vietnam
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
304 pages · Paperback · Vintage