Free PR copy received from the publisher!

The pages of this slim little book are absolutely saturated with the trauma and tragedy of the Vietnam war. It’s both at odds and in harmony with the short chapters and gorgeous writing . It doesn’t shy away from exposing the horrors of war, but the choppy vignette style means you’re never physically lingering over one event for long. How long a passage remains burned into your brain, however, is a different matter.

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Kim Thúy raises fascinating arguments about truth, writing and history, and the intertwining, fragmentary natures of human lives. How can we claim to write the truth when an event is unknowable to all but who have lived through it? From reading text on a page, even a firsthand account, how we can we fathom the courage, strength, bravery, madness it must take to stare death in the face, to make choices between children, to endure the unendurable? We cannot, but we try.

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I loved the way the book progresses, starting with one character and then almost fast-forwarding through their lives, emphasising the defining moments. As it goes on, characters weave in and out of one another’s narratives. Through these fragments, the bigger picture is formed.

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From the rubber plantations of Indochina, devastation of Agent Orange, Operation Babylift, all the way through to the nail salon industry of today, these 150 pages encompass so much history. It may sound like a lot to achieve in so few pages, but Kim Thúy pulls it off. Highly recommend!