The Refugees

Viet Thanh Nguyen

The Refugees is a book by Viet Thanh Nguyen that consists of eight short stories, each featuring a different aspect of the lives of Vietnamese immigrants and their children who fled their homeland after the fall of Saigon to the communists. The stories explore themes such as immigration, identity, love, and family, as well as the challenges, traumas, and conflicts that the refugees face in their new environments. The stories are set in various locations, such as California, Louisiana, Vietnam, and Japan, and span different time periods, from the 1970s to the present. The stories are told from diverse perspectives, such as a ghostwriter haunted by her dead brother, a gay refugee living with his sponsor’s family, a woman who discovers her husband’s affair with a Vietnamese woman, and a professor who returns to Vietnam to find his estranged daughter. The book is a moving and insightful portrayal of the refugee experience and its lasting impact.

Language: Vietnamese