Wandering Souls
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4.5 • 33 Ratings
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- £6.49
Publisher Description
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION
‘A mighty achievement’ OCEAN VUONG
‘Beautiful, brilliant’ R. F. KUANG
‘Dazzling’ OBSERVER
‘Will shatter your heart’ GLAMOUR
‘Powerful’ SUNDAY TIMES
An extraordinary story of the journey of one young family through love, loss and unwavering hope.
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 journey in hope of a new life. Separated from their parents and fearing the worst they find themselves travelling alone in the world without a home to return to. After a twist of fate lands them in Thatcher’s Britain, they must somehow build new lives there. Will the love they have for each other be enough to keep them together?
Wandering Souls is a stunning, life-affirming testament to the healing power of stories.
A Time and Guardian book of the year
Shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize 2023
‘Poignant and lyrical’ DAVID NICHOLLS
‘A powerful story of courage, love and unwavering hope’ MARIE CLAIRE
‘Beautiful… I loved every word’ PHILIPPA PERRY
‘A deeply affecting reckoning with history’ i-D
‘Tells one of the most important stories of our times’ LUCY CALDWELL
‘Special … Reading it is like watching a writer at work’ NEW YORK TIMES
Reviews
‘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
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Pin follows three refugees out of Vietnam to England in her powerful debut. In 1978, Thi Anh, 16, and two younger brothers, Minh and Thanh, survive the treacherous journey to Hong Kong, but their parents and four younger siblings drown, events prefigured in Pin's matter-of-fact opening line: "There are the goodbyes and then the fishing out of the bodies—everything in between is speculation." Anh is bitter about her uncle in the U.S., who urged her family to flee and told them stories of his life in New Haven, Conn., and lies to aid workers, saying they have no family abroad. Months later, they are resettled in Sopley, England, and struggle to adjust while waiting for public housing. As the years pass, Anh works in a garment factory, Minh and Thanh progress through school with varying degrees of success—Minh drops out and deals drugs, Thanh finishes his A-levels, but abandons his plans for university, fearing his grades aren't good enough for scholarships. Pin smoothly juggles Anh's narrative with snippets of speeches and news reports that provide conflicting views of Margaret Thatcher's policies toward refugees, as well chapters from the perspectives of the ghost of a younger brother, refugees who are sexually assaulted in Thailand, and a narrator—unidentified until the end—who feels great pressure to do justice to their family's experiences. With concision and clarity, the author shows a deep understanding of how upheaval can splinter families.
Customer Reviews
Beautiful
A deeply absorbing and emotional story, beautifully written, which offers a unique and very human perspective on the lives of refugees, told through the eyes of one family. Revealing, relevant and compelling.