Prisoners

by Wayne Karlin

Central to Wayne Karlin's novel Prisoners is the story of Kiet, a runaway teenage orphan from Vietnam who is seeking her Black father and whose flight impinges upon the lives of several other characters, many of them Vietnam War veterans. The drama of the interlinking stories illuminates the "seepage of history" and examines the "crimes of war and family and skin" in the Tidewater region in Maryland. Karlin unpeels their histories like an onion, layer after layer, until the violent climax, and a denouement that offers understanding, hope, and reconciliation.

172 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

About the author

Wayne Karlin has published nine novels: The Genizah, A Wolf by the Ears, Marble Mountain, The Wished-For Country, Prisoners, Lost Armies, Us, The Extras, Crossover; a collection of short stories, Memorial Days, and three works of non-fiction: Rumors and Stones, War Movies, and Wandering Souls: Journeys with the Dead and the Living in Viet Nam, as well as poetry, stories and articles in literary journals and newspapers. He has received six State of Maryland Individual Artist Awards in Fiction, two Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts), the Paterson Prize in Fiction for 1999, the Vietnam Veterans of American Excellence in the Arts Award in 2005, and the 2019 Juniper Prize for Fiction for A Wolf by the Ears. Several of his books have been published in the U.K. and in translation in Vietnam, Italy, Denmark, Holland and Sweden.