Summer Rolls

by Tuyen Do (Actress)

The Nguyen family are nursing deep wounds and secrets. Having escaped war-torn Vietnam, their individual journeys and memories have left scars the youngest daughter Mai was too young to know. As the family gradually integrates into their new life in Britain, these wounds and secrets slowly make their way to the surface.

Embracing her family's silence, Mai turns to photography, and finds herself a chronicler of her community's experiences and an essential catalyst to her family's healing.

115 pages, Paperback

First published June 24, 2019

Reviews

[Vicky Regan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful book, lots of important messages and v relatable (esp on family dynamics) 😌

[Indy van Salem · Rating 4 out of 5]

A powerful and emotional story of family, identity and generational trauma

Summer Rolls is a deeply moving and multi-layered family story that explores themes like displacement, cultural identity and the silent trauma passed down through generations. Right from the start, the novel draws you in: a pregnant mother in 1970s Vietnam sends her young son away on a boat, hoping for a better future for him. The scene is emotional and intense, you can feel her fear, her hope and her strength in a time when hope was hard to hold onto.

Later we follow Mai and her mother Trinh in 1980s London. Mai feels torn between two worlds, alien in her surroundings, constantly judged. By her mother, her community and herself. Her thoughts, insecurities and quiet rebellion are portrayed with sensitivity and authenticity. The relationship with her mother is complicated and often harsh, but through the alternating perspectives we begin to understand Trinh too. What first seems like cold discipline turns out to be the result of unspoken, unresolved trauma of her own.

The writing style is smooth, immersive and emotionally engaging. The use of different perspectives adds depth, allowing us to experience both mother and daughter in their respective realities. It builds a strong understanding of cultural conflict, the expectations placed on women, and the quiet ache of not fully belonging.

I especially appreciated how the author included Vietnamese phrases throughout the dialogue. They’re used sparingly and with care, adding authenticity and cultural texture without making the reader feel lost, the meaning always comes through in the responses or surrounding context.

Summer Rolls is a story about how life can be transformed by the loss of a homeland. It’s about the struggle for belonging, the silence between generations and the difficulty of breaking away from inherited patterns.

A touching and beautifully written novel that lingers in your thoughts, honest, emotional and told with clarity and heart.

[Sunita Pfitzner · Rating 4 out of 5]

really enjoyed this - i thought the parallels between the mom and daughter were really poetic and beautiful and i really liked how the author wrote about the same scene from different views in a way that made you feel for and understand each character, even while disagreeing with them.

[Tessa Carr · Rating 3 out of 5]

leaning towards 4, so so sad in places and had me tearing up on the train

[Mitsy_Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a multi‑generational story originally written as a play that was then turned into a moving novel. It centres on a British‑Vietnamese family divided with dual timelines alternating between the mother’s past in war‑torn Vietnam and her daughter’s present in 1990s London. At first, I disliked the mother Trinh for her treatment of her daughter, Mai, and her overall bitter personality. But as I read her backstory, you see how survival during the war and what came after changed her to be that way. The book turned out to be sadder and more complex than I thought it’d be from the illustrated cover, but I found it deeply thoughtful and beautifully written.

4-4.5🌟

[Violet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic format of the genre: two timelines, we follow a mother in Vietnam in the 1970s and her daughter and her in London in the 1990s, but I like these kinds of novels and I love connecting the dots as the characters reveal their past very slowly over the course of the book. In this one, the mother, Trinh, has left Vietnam to escape the war, and has settled in London where her teenage daughter resents her and struggles to understand her. It was slow at times and sad and well-written, and darker than what the cover would have you believe. It's hard to believe it's a debut novel and I'd love to read what Tuyen Do writes next.

Free ARC sent by Netgalley.

[emz ٩(◕‿◕｡)۶ · Rating 5 out of 5]

its actually a crime that I just saw the cover in the library thinking "ooooo vietnamese author and beautiful artwork" and it's now my favourite book of 2025

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book! One of my favourite book club books so far 🫶🏽

[akimbo · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded down

[Siobhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summer Rolls is a novel about family and cultures, as a British-Vietnamese girl battles with her mother who left Vietnam for her children. Mai lives in London and as a teenager in the 90s, she feels that she isn't allowed the same freedom as everyone else in her class, with her mother's strict rules and idolisation of her older brother who just graduated from university. But her mother, Trinh, hasn't had a simple life, and secrets from the past resurface as they try to find a way to understand each other.

This novel is told in two parallel narratives, one in the 90s and early 2000s in London and the other in Vietnam over two decades, unfolding the stories of Mai and Trinh and what freedom, love, and family have meant to them. The style really draws you in, immediate and with enough untranslated Vietnamese in dialogue to get across the importance of culture and language in the novel. The blurb compares the book to Pachinko, but it is much less epic in scope than that novel, and more focused on two main characters and those close to them.

I enjoyed Summer Rolls and its powerful exploration of a mother-daughter relationship caught across countries and time. I do think the UK cover does the book a bit of a disservice, looking more like a YA novel or something without the depth of Summer Rolls, but it is nice artwork.