Banyan Moon
A sweeping historical novel about mothers, daughters and family secrets
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- £5.49
Publisher Description
The perfect book club read
FOR FANS OF CELESTE NG and MIN JIN LEE.
'A riveting mother-daughter tale' Elle
'Spellbinding and intricately layered' E.M. Tran
'A gripping tale about motherhood' Heat
'This novel has everything you want' Meng Jin
'A haunting page turner' Carolyn Huynh
'Heart-shatteringly beautiful' Nguyen Phan Que Mai
Ann Tran is already at a crossroads when she gets the call that her beloved grandmother, Minh, has died. With a beautiful home and a charming boyfriend, Ann has built a seemingly perfect life, but it all crumbles away with one positive pregnancy test.
With her carefully planned future now in question, Ann returns home to Florida to face her estranged mother, Hu'o'ng. Under the same roof for the first time in years, mother and daughter must face the simmering questions of their past, without the one person who's always held them together.
Running parallel to this is Minh's story, as she goes from a lovestruck teenager living in the shadow of the Vietnam War to a determined young mother immigrating to America in search of a better life. And when Ann makes a shocking discovery in the Banyan House's attic, long-buried secrets come to light.
Spanning decades and continents, from 1960s Vietnam to the wild swamplands of the Florida coast, Banyan Moon is a stunning and deeply moving story of mothers and daughters, the things we inherit, and the lives we choose to make out of that inheritance.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Thai debuts with an accomplished story of a Vietnamese American family's complex relationships and pressing mysteries. Ann Tran, a professional illustrator living in Michigan with her wealthy boyfriend, Noah Winthorpe, has been called home by her mother, Hương, to the family's Banyan House on Florida's Gulf Coast, where her grandmother Minh has died. Ann's life is in disarray; she's pregnant and unsure about her relationship with Noah, who has been cheating on her. Minh had known what it was like to be a single mother facing uncertainty. She left her native Vietnam in 1973 to honor her late husband's dying wish that she protect their children. Hương, meanwhile, who always longed for an intact family, guards Ann from the truth of why Ann grew up without her own father. Now, as inheritors of the Banyan House, the two women have a chance to repair their relationship, and they decide to live there together until Ann's baby is born. Still, Hương worries Ann will find evidence in the house of what happened to her father. In an emotional conclusion, Thai satisfyingly settles the question of whether total honesty is necessary to sustain loving connections between mothers and daughters. There's no shortage of multigenerational family narratives out there, and this one really stands out from the pack.
