All That's Left Unsaid

by Tracey Lien

For fans of Everything I Never Told You and The Mothers, a deeply moving and unflinching debut following a young Vietnamese-Australian woman who returns home to her family in the wake of her brother’s shocking murder, determined to discover what happened—a dramatic exploration of the intricate bonds and obligations of friendship, family, and community.

Just let him go. These are the words Ky Tran will forever regret. The words she spoke when her parents called to ask if they should let her younger brother Denny out to celebrate his high school graduation with friends. That night, Denny—optimistic, guileless, brilliant Denny—is brutally murdered inside a busy restaurant in the Sydney suburb of Cabramatta, a refugee enclave facing violent crime, an indifferent police force, and the worst heroin epidemic in Australian history.

Returning home to Cabramatta for the funeral, Ky learns that the police are stumped by Denny’s case: a dozen people were at Lucky 8 restaurant when Denny died, but each of the bystanders claim to have seen nothing.

Desperately hoping that understanding what happened might ease her suffocating guilt, Ky sets aside her grief and determines to track down the witnesses herself. With each encounter, she peels back another layer of the place that shaped her and Denny, exposing trauma and seeds of violence that were planted well before that fateful celebration dinner: by colonialism, by the war in Vietnam, and by the choices they’ve all made to survive.

Alternating between Ky’s voice and the perspectives of the witnesses, Tracey Lien’s extraordinary debut is at once heart-pounding and heart-rending as it probes the intricate bonds of friendship, family, and community through an unforgettable cast of characters, all connected by a devastating crime. Combining evocative family drama and gripping suspense, All That’s Left Unsaid is a profound and moving page turner, perfect for readers of Liz Moore, Brit Bennett, and Celeste Ng.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Contemporary, Australia, Book Club, Audiobook, Literary Fiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published August 30, 2022

About the author

Tracey Lien was born and raised in southwestern Sydney, Australia. She earned her MFA at the University of Kansas and was previously a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. All That's Left Unsaid is her first novel.

Reviews

[Lit with Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you William & Morrow for my beautiful gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. IYKYK, my reviews are always honest.

BANGER ALERT 🚨🚨🚨🚨

SYNOPSIS

In the late 1990s, Ky Tran returns to Cabramatta after the violent murder of her younger brother, Denny. Looking for answers, Ky's past and present collide.

MY OPINION

OOOOHWEEEE!!! As always, let me set the record straight: this isn't a thriller or suspense novel despite how it sounds in the Goodreads synopsis. So for my thrillerheads, read carefully before picking this up. I would classify this as a social commentary + family drama with a lil splish splash of mystery at the center of it all.

Yes, her brother's death is the driver for her return, but it is not your typical citizens gone rogue, hate letters in your underwear drawer type of vibe. This is a serious exploration of intergenerational trauma, PTSD caused by war, political unrest, and refugee camps, and what it means to "belong" to a country.

Tracey Lien's extensive research shines through in her characters' experiences as Vietnamese immigrants in Australia. The beautiful prose delivers a complex and heart-wrenching (but at times funny) story from multiple POVs. I loved how Lien expertly crafted a story and tone for each character, especially the young child Lulu. I did think young Minnie was a little too "woke" for her age, but I understood her "role" in the story and the need for her to be like that.

And similar to Bad Fruit and Bliss Montage, this story made me think of my mom. She left a lot unsaid (see what I did there) but the bits and pieces she did share with me were represented in this story: Rampant alcoholism in men using alcohol to cope, the pressure to succeed as a "thank you" to your parents for upheaving their lives to give you a "better" one, the lost sense of self as you struggle with assimilating while being told to remember your roots. For those who are or intimately know East Asian immigrants, I think this book will resonate with you in a powerful way.

To end this on a lighter note, shoutout to Lien for making sure the factory wrap remained on the furniture LOL. Idk how my Lola kept her home from setting on fire but she dead ass had saran wrap around the stovetop buttons 😂

PROS AND CONS

Pros: beautifully written, well-researched, characters were multi-dimensional, authentic, funny at times

Cons: nadaaaaaaa but as I said, this book is not for everyone.

[jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

this wasnt quite the big mystery/thriller i thought this would be. its definitely more of an exploration of a community and commentary on how the actions of the people in that community affect one another. but its still a good read though!

what i enjoyed the most was ky learning more about her brother. sibling relationships can be so complicated and i feel like this story perfectly captures that. i think ky investigating dennys death was a good vehicle for her own characters growth, a smart way of immersing the reader into a vietnamese-australian community, and created a plot that felt engaging.

so overall, this is pretty commendable debut novel!

thank you, william morrow, for the ARC!!

↠ 3.5 stars

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

“All That’s Left Unsaid” is an illuminating novel showcasing the heroin epidemic and anti-Asian racism in Cabramatta, a Suburb of Sydney Australia. Many South and North Vietnamese people came to this area after the Vietnam war. Many of the refugees continue to fear white people and maintain certain superstitions that their children, first generation Vietnamese Australian, find difficult to meld their Australian life with their parent’s expectations.

The story is set in 1996 with Ky Tran shocked by her high school aged brother’s brutal murder. Ky is a newspaper reporter in Melbourne, and immediately returns home for her brother’s funeral. Her parents speak little English, using their children as interpreters. As a result, they know nothing about her brother’s murder. In fact, they didn’t even request an autopsy. It’s a frustrating mystery of what happened. It was a busy night at a popular restaurant, and no one saw a thing. Ky feels guilty because her parents called her asking if it would be safe for her brother to attend his end-of-school-year party. It was at this party that her brother was killed. Furthermore, the all-white police force has little interest in solving a case involving a Vietnamese kid.

Author Tracey Lien writes a haunting tale of a woman’s quest to find the truth of her brother’s unspeakable murder. She reflects on her life in Cabramatta and the difficulty of assimilating her parent’s culture with the Australian culture. This is a heartbreaking read which I found mesmerizing.

I listened to the audio narrated by Aileen Huynh, Yen Nguyen, and Amelia Nguyen. I thought the tone of the story perfectly narrated. I highly recommend the audio.

[Catherine (alternativelytitledbooks) - tired of sickness! · Rating 4 out of 5]

**Many thanks to NetGalley, @BookClubGirl, William Morrow, and Tracey Lien for an ARC of this book! Now available as of 9.13!**

Denny Tran is dead...and his sister Ky is in shock.

Returning home to Cabramatta, Australia for his funeral, she finds her former home in some ways just how she left it...but in others even MORE deadly and dangerous. Plagued by violence and a pervasive drug culture, the Vietnamese refugees in this town often seem to face terror at every corner. Ky learns that her brother was killed at a Lucky 8 after a school event, but she can't seem to get any more detail out of anyone...even her own parents. Luckily, Ky is a journalist and is hell bent on getting to the bottom of her straight A student brother's death, so she takes matters into her own hands and starts hunting down witnesses to get to the bottom of the mystery. What she finds, however, are secrets more harrowing than she could have imagined...and links to her own past that are coming back to haunt her. Have the answers she's been searching for been hiding in plain sight...and if the past refuses to be ignored, what does THAT mean for Ky's future?

This is a difficult book to review for several reasons. I felt like I read a couple of different books combined into one book, which can be tricky in and of itself. This is a book that in some ways is very much in the vein of a Celeste Ng story, but in others has its own unique bent. The mystery is VERY important at the beginning of the story and I got hooked immediately trying to find out whodunit, but as we jumped from the Big Case into more of an exploration of the immigrant experience in Cabramatta...and THEN into Ky's past with her friends...I had trouble focusing and knowing exactly where the novel was headed.

Commentary on the different paths Vietnamese immigrants took (or were forced to take) in Cabramatta is clearly the most IMPORTANT driving force behind the book...but in some ways, I'm not sure if it was the most interesting in terms of furthering the plot itself. However, this was a tricky balancing act for Lien, so I applaud her effort to fit so much detail and so many perspectives into one story. There are explorations of what it means to be family, what sacrifice entails, and how those we love may not always be what they seem (or perhaps are EXACTLY what they seem!)

There is one chapter in particular that was striking, early on, which is narrated by a young character and was SO well-written. I almost wish Lien had used this device more often throughout the book because she was able to really NAIL the voice of the character and show off her writing prowess. Though I didn't mind narration by Ky, as a mystery/thriller lover, I would have liked a LITTLE bit more focus on the mystery or perhaps a bit more of a surprising ending in that department, but again, that is definitely a personal preference!

I struggled a bit with my rating on this one, but since overall this was a thoughtful, intriguing, and well-written debut, I'm happy to round up to 4 stars. I look forward to hearing more from Tracey Lien!

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4

[Angie Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really got to me. I finished it yesterday and I've been in a funk since then, and I can't tell if it's because I'm sad because the story was so tragic or if I'm sad because I finished the book and I wish I could have stayed in that world a little longer. (Probably a little of both.) The story starts with a Vietnamese-Australian reporter finding out that her baby brother died during a high school graduation dinner at a local restaurant, and follows her as she tries to figure out who killed him and why. I loved the structure, which alternates between the sister/protagonist's close-third POV and a variety of other characters, including the witnesses and family members. Because we keep returning to the sister, there is a clear, propulsive mystery-investigation throughline. Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka used a similar structure, also to great effect. Tracey Lien clearly knows this world really well, as everything was authentic and gorgeously written and insightful.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

A stunner of a novel! In All That’s Left Unsaid, we follow Ky Tran, a young Vietnamese American woman who returns to her hometown of Cabramatta after her younger brother is brutally murdered. After attending his funeral and learning about the ineptness of the police who handled his case, Ky takes matters into her own hands and seeks out the people who witnessed her brother’s death. Through this pursuit Ky realizes truths about herself, her brother, and others from her past that shakes her foundation of right and wrong, as well as the expectations she placed both on her family and the people around her.

One strength of this novel that stood out to me from the start was Tracey Lien’s ability to write from multiple perspectives effectively. Usually books that include more than two or so points of view do so in awkward or stilted way where the multiple voices detract from the story instead of adding to it. However, Lien does an excellent job of giving each perspective a distinct voice, and she focuses each one so that they all ultimately add to the suspenseful and thrilling elements of All That’s Left Unsaid. Thanks to the multiple perspectives, we also get to see how the heroin epidemic of the 90’s in Australia affected various Vietnamese community members, furthering our empathy and understanding. This is a novel about race, class, and injustice, though Lien foregrounds her characters so it feels more like we’re learning about and developing concern for them, instead of solely ingesting lessons about social justice.

I could tell that I was going to give this book at least four stars from early on in my reading experience, though some plot and character events that occurred in the second half bumped it closer to a five star for me. Namely, I love how Lien developed Ky and Minnie’s friendship and showed where both characters were right and where they messed up. I love when an author creates a situation where characters are messy and human and there’s a conflict that feels well-earned with both parties doing their best and still failing, instead of a conflict that comes across as cheap (e.g., characters fighting primarily because of repetitive miscommunication). I felt that the dynamic between Ky and Minnie served as a powerful vehicle to communicate broader themes about intergenerational trauma in a subtle way. By the end of the novel there’s growth from these characters too, which I deeply enjoyed witnessing.

Overall, a powerful novel I would recommend to fans of contemporary novels focused on family/community drama as well as fans of mysteries/thrillers/books about race and class and immigration. Congrats to Lien for a wonderful debut.

[Rosemary Atwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

An illuminating and moving account of the violence, racism and desperation underpinning the lives of many Vietnamese migrants and refugees who try to rebuild their shattered lives in the cities of more prosperous nations - in this case, the western Sydney suburb of Cabramatta, notorious for heroin dealing and gang violence.

Lien’s debut novel leans more confidently into the territory of Young Adult than Crime fiction in its revisiting of childhood, adolescence and friendship. There are few mysteries to solve here but much to learn.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Ky Tran returns home with the intention to find out who killed her younger brother. She has deep feelings of guilt as she is the one who convinced her fearful parent to allow Danny to go out to celebrate after his high school graduation. Growing up in the Sydney suburb of Cabramatta, she was used to being looked down on, feeling as other. Her brother Danny though was a smart young man expected to go far. So, what could he have done for someone to take his life in a place that was full of people. People who insist they saw nothing.

Apparently, a large contingent of Vietnamese have attempted to form their own community in Cabramatta. This book, a well defined debut, is more than a mystery as it shows the difficulty those who come to other countries, fleeing their own, have assimilated. Being accepted. How parents want their children to be accepted, but how these children need to work, study much harder than those who know they belong. How so many turn to drugs and other means to gain power, feel important or just to survive. Ki is a touching character, a sister but also a survivor, who loves her younger brother and goes from person to person, determined to get answers.

The audio was narrated by three different people and I thought they all did well.

[Marilyn (not getting notifications) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to William Morrow/Harper Collins Publishers for sending me a print copy of All That’s Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien that I won in a goodreads give away in exchange for an honest review.

All That’s Left Unsaid was Tracey Lien’s debut novel. It was a most compelling read from start to finish. The setting for All That’s Left Unsaid was Cabramatta, Australia, a suburb of Sydney. Cabramatta was and still is a town that was dominated by many Asian refugee families, including many from Vietnam. In 1996, Cabramatta had a very high percentage of gangs, witnessed its fair share of violent crimes and a was experiencing a large drug epidemic, primarily heroin. It was not the sort of hometown where its inhabitants felt safe walking home by themselves from their destinations. An uncomfortable display of racism also existed. Refugee children learned from an early age to be grateful that they lived there and to stay quiet so not to draw attention to themselves. The children of refugee parents were made to feel confused by all the rules and expectations their parents set for them. They became angry about all they were subjected to and made to endure. Most of these children did all the “right” things. They studied hard, followed the rules and walked away when they were ridiculed. How much would they have to endure until they began to fight back and demand that they be recognized and shown the same respect as their fellow white Australians? How had the trauma of their refugee parents influenced their children’s lives, decisions and actions?

All That Was Left Unsaid followed a young Vietnamese-Australian woman named Ky Tran. Ky had moved away from Cabramatta several years ago. She had moved to Melbourne where she was employed as a journalist. Over the past several years Ky had limited her visits to Cabramatta to see her family. Cabramatta was not a place Ky wanted to return to but when her younger brother, Danny, was brutally murdered during a celebratory dinner at the Lucky 8 restaurant for his high school graduation, Ky returned for his funeral. Ky felt that it was her fault that Danny was dead. She had encouraged her parents to allow Danny to go to that restaurant so he could celebrate his graduation from high school. Now she wanted desperately to understand what had happened to Danny that night. Her parents had not questioned the vague explanations of the police. Ky knew in her heart, that the police would treat her brother’s murder as just another refugee most probably involved with or on drugs and make it disappear quickly. She needed to know what happened that night. Ky knew her brother was smart and good. He would never have been involved with drugs. Ky obtained a list of the patrons and workers who were at the restaurant that night and could have been potential witnesses. The police force was indifferent and allowed Ky to question these potential witnesses as long as she didn’t reveal them as her source that supplied their names. The police had taken the word of the witnesses they interviewed at face value. They did not doubt the potential witnesses when they told them that they had not seen anything. Ky felt that she had a better shot at making these people tell her what they had really seen that night. Someone had to have seen what happened to Danny. With each potential witness she spoke with, Ky exposed more of the Cabramatta that shaped her and her brother’s lives growing up there. She witnessed the trauma that dominated these people’s lives. The people that lived in Cabramatta, all lived with their share of trauma and the fear of violence that resulted from leaving Vietnam and settling in Australia, the effect the Vietnam War had on them and the hard choices they all had to make in order to survive in this new country. Would Ky be able to sway one of the witnesses to tell her what really happened to her brother?

The chapters of All That’s Left Unsaid alternated between Ky’s POV and that of the witnesses she questioned. All That’s Left Unsaid explored the ideas of friendship, family, community, remorse, guilt, the desire to belong and fit in, inherited trauma and family drama. It was a complicated mystery that Ky was determined to solve. It was well written and fast paced. Author Tracey Lien drew from her own experiences growing up in Cabramatta to write this heartbreaking and gripping novel. It was sad to acknowledge how so many children of dysfunctional families could be lured into leading a life of drug addiction and violence. All That’s Left Unsaid was both poignant and timely. I look forward to reading more books by Tracey Lien. I highly recommend this book.

[Mark Porton · Rating 3 out of 5]

All That’s Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien is this author’s debut novel. The story is based in the Sydney suburb of Cabramatta. This suburb has a large contingent of European and South East Asian immigrants – particularly from Vietnam. As an aside, of the twenty thousand or more who live in Cabramatta, over forty percent identify as Buddhists.

 

This story involves a young Vietnamese Australian woman called Ky who returns home to Cabramatta from her job a journalist in Melbourne following the murder of her younger brother Denny. Denny was beaten to death in a popular Vietnamese restaurant called Lucky 8, there were numerous people in the restaurant that night, but no-one saw anything. Ky is surprised to discover the police didn’t order an autopsy and haven’t identified any suspects, despite the murder occurring in such a public place. She goes about attempting find the killer/s.

 

Was Denny – who was a high achieving senior school student and a good boy – involved in the gangland drug scene, or was he just in the wrong place at the wrong time?

 

This book is far more than a murder mystery, it’s also a glimpse into the lives of Vietnamese immigrants, who came over to Australia in large numbers following the Vietnam War. As Ky interviews various people in the local community the reader will learn some of the challenges and issues this community have needed to navigate in a country that used to openly employ a ‘White Australia’ policy. I found the interaction between Ky and her parents particularly interesting, as her parents had their heads and hearts very much in Vietnam, and the juxtaposition Ky needed to navigate between her parent’s ‘old ways and the expectations of living in a bustling city like Sydney was challenging.

 

I enjoyed the murder/mystery aspect of this story, but I found the narrative of this immigrant enclave far more fascinating. However, I found it a little distracting the way the author frequently switched from ‘murder investigation mode’ to ‘SE Asian immigrant mode’ - the latter usually involving flashbacks.

 

Having said that, this is a sound effort and for those who have an interest in a different type of murder/mystery this might very well be right down your alley.

 

3 Stars

 

Many thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in return for a review.

[Phrynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting and often heart breaking book but do not be fooled into shelving it as just a mystery. Rather it is a social documentary about refugee immigrants living in the community of Cabramatta, in Sydney, as it was thirty years ago.

Ky Tran's parents are such refugees and Ky has managed, against many obstacles, to do well at school and find herself a job far away from home in Melbourne. Then she discovers her young brother has been murdered and returns home to find that no one is prepared to admit to being a witness of the event. This is the mystery which Ky struggles to solve, but it is a very small part of the overall story.

Much more time is given to social commentary and people's back stories which go towards explaining their actions. It is all cold, hard truth but there was a lot of it and eventually it became overwhelming, for me anyway. The ending was an anti climax but there was probably no better way to conclude events realistically.

So I guess I would judge this to be a good book but with a few personal reservations. It is certainly worth reading.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

[Bkwmlee · Rating 5 out of 5]

**EDIT: Tracey Lien did an interview with Books & Boba podcast where she talked about her inspiration for the book. It was such a great conversation that, as a member of the Asian diaspora (just like the author and both hosts), resonated so much with me! I highly recommend listening to that episode, as it greatly complements the book!

When I first read the premise for Tracey Lien’s debut All That’s Left Unsaid , I knew this was a book I wanted to read. Comparisons to some of my favorite authors (Liz Moore, Celeste Ng, Brit Bennett) aside, I was intrigued by the case at the center of the story: 17-year-old Denny Tran attends a dinner at a local restaurant in Cabramatta, Australia (a suburb in Sydney) with his friends, but before the night is over, he is brutally murdered in plain sight of over a dozen witnesses, yet all of them claim not to have seen a thing. The Tran family is devastated, but faced with an indifferent police force in a refugee enclave where the proliferation of drugs (specifically heroin) as well as violent crime have become commonplace, Denny’s parents seem to have no other recourse but to accept the “bad luck” of their beloved son’s murder. But Denny’s sister Ky refuses to let things simply get swept under the rug. Desperate to assuage her feelings of guilt for leaving the family in order to pursue her own life in Melbourne (an act akin to “abandoning” the family and is severely frowned upon in traditional Asian households), Ky returns to Cabramatta and, after her brother’s funeral, decides to seek out and interrogate each of the witnesses herself in order to find out the circumstances behind Denny’s murder. With each person she speaks to, Ky gets closer to understanding what happened to her brother, but at the same time, she discovers the myriad complexities and difficulties of navigating the path to justice and closure for her family in a community where its citizens are mostly resigned to their fates.

There was honestly so much to unpack with this story that it is impossible to cover every angle in a brief review such as this one (personally, I highlighted so many things in this book that were significant to me, it would take me pages and pages to parse all of it). I will attempt to relay a few thoughts that stood out, but I encourage people to actually read this book in order to get the full experience.

I do want to start off by saying that this book is technically incorrectly classified under mystery / thriller. While it’s true that the plot overall revolves around unraveling the “mysterious” circumstances behind Denny Tran’s murder, it quickly becomes obvious (a chapter or so into the story, in fact) that his death is actually the trigger point for a deeply complicated and intricate exploration of community, society, class struggle, immigration, culture and assimilation, systemic racism, family bonds, parent-child relationships, generational trauma, mental illness, abuse, etc (and that’s just scratching the surface). The “mystery” itself was easy to figure out, which essentially rendered the ending anti-climactic, but the gut wrenching process of getting to that point was really the crux of what made this story work so well. With its “social commentary” angle, I feel like this would’ve fit more appropriately into literary fiction, though from a time and place perspective — Cabramatta (which was an actual place in Australia) in the 1990s, during which time there truly was a heroin epidemic — there was also a historical element to the story as well that I didn’t expect, but made the story even more compelling.

Before I go into talking about the characters, I wanted to comment on the title and structure. This book actually has one of the cleverest titles I’ve ever seen: it complements the book perfectly because when we peel back the layers, the story is essentially about “the many things that are left unsaid” by every character in the book — not just the witnesses from that night, but also the parents, Denny, and even Ky herself. So in this sense, there is a deeper meaning to the title that can only be understood after reading and reflecting on the entire story. Structure-wise, I love how the narrative alternated between various perspectives — sure, we got Ky’s perspective primarily, but there were also chapters narrated from the perspectives of the witnesses as well as Ky’s parents. Through these chapters, we were able to get the backstories to the various characters, which helped us understand what ultimately drove each character’s decision that fateful night. Structuring the narrative this way not only made the story more powerful and poignant, it also helped make the characters realistic and relatable, which I felt was very important to this story overall.

Speaking of the characters, I truly appreciate the brilliant job that the author Tracey Lien did in the area of character development, especially with Ky and Minnie. Reading this book was actually quite an emotional roller coaster for me because of the resonance I felt with the characters and so much of what they went through. With Ky especially, I saw so much of myself in her — from her struggles with identity and acceptance, to her analysis of her own shortcomings and insecurities, her feelings of anxiety related to the environment in which she grew up, and most significantly, her relationship with her mother. I’ve always been drawn to stories about parent/child relationships, but those between Asian mothers and their daughters are especially resonant with me because of my cultural background and the hope that reading about these relationships will help me navigate the complex dynamic that exists there.

One of the other things I loved about this book was how, through the character of Ky (and Minnie to some extent), Lien so accurately expressed the realities of life for many Asian women like myself — daughters of immigrants (and/or refugees) who may or may not have been born in the Western countries where we grew up and currently live — and how many of the conflicts that we constantly deal with, be it the cultural expectations or the societal pressures that come with being Asian and female, greatly inform how we end up interacting with our parents (and with others as well). I wanted to share the below passage from the book, which blew me away when I read it because it hit the nail on the head and made me feel “seen” in a way that so few books I’ve read in the past have been able to do.

“To anyone else, [his] reason would have been baffling. But Ky understood. She hated how well she now understood. After all, hadn’t she kept every hurt she’d ever experienced from her own parents? Hadn’t she hidden the bullying, the name-calling, the cruel acts of strangers, the times she’d been told to go back to where she came from, the ching-chongs, the pulled-back eyelids, the blondies with the Cabbage Patch Kids, the way she was forced to play the monster, the way she was asked why she couldn’t just take a joke, the times she was told that Asian women were ugly, kinky, docile, crazy, nerdy, unworthy, the way she was dismissed by men, the way she was dismissed by white men, their comments about what Asian women were and weren’t, what Asian women could or couldn’t be, the way she smiled with her tongue pressed against her teeth even as an ache beat in tandem with her heart—hadn’t she hidden all of that? And hadn’t she lived her own ambitious, exciting, anxious, uncompromising life while knowing that she could never, ever, ever, ever tell her parents about what she had been through? Because knowing would break their hearts. Because she had to help them believe that their sacrifices had paid off. Because she had to help them believe that moving to a country where they didn’t speak the language and weren’t seen as individuals had been worth it. Because she had to convince them that they’d done right by their children, that no one had failed, that no one had been let down, that they were one of the lucky ones who’d followed the path and found success. It made perfect sense. You lied to protect. You lied because of love.”

This is a book I definitely recommend and will likely want to re-read myself at some point. However, with that said, a word of warning that this is not going to be an easy read — it is sad and heart wrenching, it presents truths about our society that may be difficult to face, and it may take you places that you would rather not be, especially with some of the things going on in the world at the moment. But is is a worthwhile read — I would even say that it’s a necessary read — for those who are up to it, of course. This was a fantastic debut and I definitely look forward to what Tracey Lien has in store for us next.

Received ARC from William Morrow via NetGalley.

[NILTON TEIXEIRA · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rounded up to 5 stars.

This is in my opinion a great debut.
I was very pleased with the writing and its structure. I liked the flashback memories inserted into the present narrative.
The development of the story is very slow, but you get an insight of the struggles that some immigrants had to face.
This is more like a drama/documentary about refugees immigrants trying a life in Cabramatta, Australia, rather than a mystery or thriller.
The storyline was somewhat heartbreaking.
I liked how the author translated the personal conflicts of each character so clearly. There is so much pain, as if she had experienced everything on her own. It showed a good understanding of human nature, hence my 5 stars.
A really great debut.
Now, if you are one those readers who judges a book based on “likeable” characters, then this one is not for you.

PS: the expression FOB (fresh off the boat) appears 11 times.

Settings: Cabramatta is a suburb in south-western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Cabramatta is located 30 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Fairfield.
Since the 1980s, Cabramatta has been a centre for the Vietnamese, as well as many residents from other Asian and European origins.

[Bec (becbingesbooks) - sorry, behind with lots of catching up to do · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of few books that I will never forget!

An extremely heart breaking and eye opening story about refugees post the Vietnam War trying to assimilate in Australia.

For me, this wasn't a suspense/thriller novel. It was part coming of age, part family drama. It has a big focus on racism - some tough insights - as well as grief, friendships and the impact of abuse.

There is an element of suspense in relation to a murder and unknown perpetrator, but it doesn't drive the story.

I have absolutely no complaints about this incredibly written book. It is more than outstanding for a debut. Very engaging and emotional. It is rare I'd say this, but I'm glad I was mistaken in believing this was my usual genre as I'd not have given it a chance (besides it being a book club read) and I am so glad I did!

Highly recommend. Please check TWs online, there are quite a few.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ky Tran, 22 year old journalist in Melbourne, returns home to Cabramatta for the funeral of her 17 year old brother, Denny. He was at a graduation after party at the Lucky 8 restaurant when he was beaten to death. Although there were about 17 diners present and 3-4 staff, no one saw anything or knows anything.

Ky doesn’t understand why her parents refused an autopsy (I didn’t think you could refuse one for a murder) and don’t have a copy of any report from the police. Ky wheedles a report and witness list from a police officer arguing that she is Vietnamese and from the community and people may be more inclined to talk to her than the police.

The book started very slowly and there seemed to be an awful of detail that just wasn’t necessary. After about 30% the book got a lot better. It was not just about Denny’s murder although Ky does find out what happened. It was also very much about how migrants, particularly the Vietnamese in this case, integrated or not into the broader Australian community. The young people often felt torn between the old customs and expectations of parents who were generally very strict and being able to fit in with white Australians and make new friends in their age group.

This book didn’t really grab me. I thought the perceived racism was overstated. I know it exists, my parents were migrants too, although they came from Europe, but I just thought the Vietnamese parents were portrayed in a somewhat derogatory way. That’s just my perception. Ky came across as a bit of a ‘victim’ who felt hard done by her parents and her best friend who went off the rails in year 10. She felt as if everyone expected her to be perfect, and that same expectation was on her brother’s shoulders. He may not have been the “good boy” the parents claimed, buckling under the pressure to be perfect. I don’t know.

It was a different sort of story for me but it was not really one I enjoyed that much. I think the author has talent but it’s just not my jam. Many thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin Australia for the much appreciated arc which I reviewed voluntarily and honestly.

[Julia Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully constructed, specific, and rich. The novel starts with a tragedy and at times I found the fact of that tragedy almost unbearably sad. It was almost too much to hold. But then the end was relieving, healing...gorgeous.

[Kylie H · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't feel that I am in a position to fairly critique this book, being of anglo-saxon origin and having been born and grown up here in Australia - my life experience is of a privileged, white Australian. My family did however, host Vietnamese refugee families during the late 1970's as part of an effort to assist with cultural education, and I heard the most shocking stories first-hand of imprisonment, refugee camps and life in the Australian immigrant hostels.
This story is set in the 1990's in Cabramatta, a suburb of Sydney. Ky, now living and working as a journalist in Melbourne, is stunned to receive a phone call from her parents to say her young brother Denny, was beaten to death on the night of his high school graduation dinner. This sets Ky on a path to try and determine what drove someone to do this to her kind, gentle brother and why in a restaurant full of witnesses, did no one see anything.
If you are looking for a traditional murder-mystery, this is not it. If you are interested in understanding more about the endless obstacles and insults that immigrants are often faced with, then this may just be it.
This is a book that contains grief, pain and rejection. It is hard to read, and for me personally, it ripped a few more scales from my eyes.
Thank you Tracey Lien for your honesty and ability to convey a truth many of us would prefer not to hear. Thank you also Harlequin Australia and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this digital ARC.

[Nat K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cabramatta is a suburb in south west Sydney, roughly thirty kilometres from the heart of the City. It has one of Australia’s largest Vietnamese communities and is a quick trip on the Bankstown train line. Once you hop off, it’s like you’re in a different world. It’s become popular in recent years to do “foodie tours”. People from all across Sydney now visit to enjoy the vibrant atmosphere, as well as the authentic cuisine.

But back in the 1990s it was completely different. Cabramatta was known as the heroin capital of Australia. Instead of foodies, junkies used to hop on the “junkie express” train to Cabra, as supply was plentiful and easy to buy at the station.

It’s in the 1990s that this book is set. Ky Tran (pronounced “Key” as she is tired of correcting people) is the daughter of Vietnamese refugees, who escaped their homeland with the clothes on their back and their young daughter. Settling in Cabramatta to be amongst their community, they work hard and soon welcome a son Denny. Both children are brought up strictly. To be polite, diligent at school (to excel) and to make the most of opportunities that their parents didn’t have.

Ky’s best friend from kindergarten to Year 10 is Minnie. Another child of Vietnamese parents. But just as Ky’s parents are strict and over loving (if there is such a thing) in their own stoic way, Minnie’s parents are rarely home and barely care for her. So Minnie spends most of her time with Ky and her family, coming home daily after school where Mrs. Tran ensures she leaves with her belly filled with food.

Fast forward to Denny’s graduation from high school. He is seventeen years of age and has graduated at the top of his form. His sister Ky now lives in Melbourne, where she is a trainee journalist. Ky convinces her strict parents to allow Denny to celebrate further after the school formal at the unfortunately named Lucky 8 restaurant, where he is murdered in cold blood. The restaurant is filled with people, yet nobody saw anything.

This is where the story conveys so much of the difficulty of new migrants to assimilate, and for their children to find their place also. For the children of immigrants from a non-English speaking background there are added challenges, and they feel they belong fully in neither community. Not being accepted as being Aussie, yet also not having any memory or knowledge of their parent’s homeland. So one foot in both camps, as Christos Tsiolkas’ also painfully spoke about in his book Loaded.

Ky returns home for Denny’s funeral and is determined to find out what happened the night of her brother’s murder. The police don’t seem to be getting any further in their investigation, and from absolute grief her parents are no use either. Her mother attends temple continually to burn joss sticks and her father sleeps on Denny’s bed each morning until it’s time for him to go to work.

This is such an impressive debut novel, which was longlisted for the Stella Prize 2023.
https://stella.org.au/all-thats-left-...

This is an unflinching examination of family relationships. The guilt of not being the parent you think you should be, or the child that cannot deal with overly high expectations. It talks about friendships that are torn apart, and how much is hidden even from those closest to us. And the meaning of identity. How do we define ourselves? And should assumptions be made on an entire community based on generalisations? There is a lot of pain in this book, and it hurts more because it is so truthful.

An easy 5 stars⭐ It can’t be any less.

[Amanda at Bookish Brews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm just here to support more Viet authors always

6.15.2022 OKAY LET'S DO THIS 🔥

update!!!! i got a copy!!!!

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[Sheree | Keeping Up With The Penguins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an amazing story of inherited trauma, the cruelty of loss, and the impact of xenophobia. Lien does a brilliant job of bringing mid-90s Sydney to life. Her characters are carefully crafted and completely believable. The comparisons to Celeste Ng are absolutely warranted.

My full review of All That's Left Unsaid can be found on Keeping Up With The Penguins.

[Brooke - Brooke's Reading Life · Rating 3 out of 5]

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All That’s Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien. (2022).

**Thank you to Harlequin Australia for sending me a free advance readers copy of this novel; published 30 August 2022**

In 1996, Ky Tran’s younger brother Denny is murdered inside a busy restaurant in Cabramatta, a suburb facing violent crime, an indifferent police force and a heroin epidemic. When she returns home, Ky learns that there were a dozen witnesses who all claim to have seen nothing. As an antidote to grief and guilt, Ky tracks down the witnesses herself and in doing so exposes all the layers of trauma and seeds of violence that led to that night: colonialism, the war in Vietnam, and the choices people make to survive.

This is a debut fiction novel that’s gotten some pretty decent reviews so far. When reading the synopsis it sounds like more of a mystery/crime novel but I think it doesn’t really have that vibe when reading, it’s more of a look at life for refugee immigrants living in the suburb of Cabramatta (in Sydney) in the mid-1990s. With a cycling through various characters and time periods, a lot of the chapters have quite a depressing undertone with the large magnitude of trauma and negative events.
Overall: this isn’t a book I would pick to read for enjoyment purposes, but it was a bit of an eye-opener in relation to the people, time and place and I appreciated learning about that.

[Laura Lovesreading · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I say I want to read a literary fiction that has me in my feels while punching me in my gut, this book did some and more!

Ok going to keep this short and sweet as I'm too emotional rn...

All That's Left Unsaid is following Ky, who returns home to her family after finding out that her brother was unalived in a busy restaurant that everyone witnessed but no one is speaking up about. From Ky's POV and some of the witnesses we follow a story about these characters while unraveling the mystery.
This is one of those books I would say that everyone has to read at least once in their life. This is not a typical thriller. It definitely read like a contemporary family domestic/drama. All that's left unsaid not only moved me like no idea, but I learned so much about the drug culture and isolation of Asian refugee families in Cabramatta (small suburb area in Sydney Australia). Each character is flawed in their own way, but you cant help given them grace and understanding due to their individual circumstances.
This book was compelling, insightful, downright sad and surprisingly had some laugh out loud moments, which was done so well with such a raw book.
I honestly cant wait to read more of Ms Lien work.

[Theresa Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a brilliant and insightful novel, written with a barely suppressed anger that is both justified and understandable. Set in 1996, in a time and place that I remember quite clearly, when heroin deaths and drug related home invasions headlined the news nightly and a red-haired chip shop woman with a big mouth launched her hate filled political platform that to this day, is still shamefully going strong. All I could think while reading this novel is that we are still beating the same drum, almost thirty years on, just about a different set of refugees, and you can substitute terrorism for heroin as the justification for it. This novel made my heart ache. This review is heavy on the quotes because they speak best for what this novel is about, the tone, the subject matter, and the piercing writing style of Tracey Lien, which I loved from the outset.

‘She took the first transfer available, to a metropolitan school, in a suburb with a name that she thought sounded Italian. When the first Indo-Chinese refugees – motherless and fatherless – found one another in southwest Sydney, banded together, created their chosen family – them against the world; when they enrolled in high school without understanding a word the teachers said; when the parents who came with babies and toddlers raised them as best they could, put them in second-hand school uniforms, ordered them to work hard, to be good, to claw back the success and stability that had been torn from them; when a sixteen-year-old black-haired boy smoked a white powder off a piece of aluminium foil, then passed it to his friend, who passed it to his friend; when the police and politicians decided that a certain ethnic enclave didn’t have the DNA to be Australian, and the prime minister of the country said Vietnamese sob stories didn’t wring his withers, and the friction of fear and hate coalesced in an Italian-sounding suburb of four square kilometres, Sharon Faulkner, freshly transferred from Hay, hair bleached golden by the sun, arrived in Cabramatta.’

On the surface, this is a novel about a sister seeking answers about her brother’s murder, which was witnessed by many, yet seen by no one. The story is told from Ky’s perspective, yet chapters are also offered from the perspective of others, those who witnessed the crime, but are unwilling to divulge what they know. Some of these chapters about the witnesses were heartbreaking, offering a view into their lives, the hardship they endure daily, the racism they are subjected to, and the trauma lines that run deep throughout their families.

‘She wondered whether in tracking down the supposed “witnesses” to Denny’s death, she was subjecting them to her grief. In inflicting this much discomfort on herself, in forcing herself to find out what happened to her brother in the most excruciating way possible, was she trying to obtain absolution? She didn’t know who exactly could absolve her.’

As well as being a story about a sister seeking answers and justice for the murder of her brother, it’s a story of the experiences of Vietnamese refugees, post war trauma, displacement, and loss. It’s also a very Australian story of racism and ethnic stereotyping.

‘She knew the constable was right to a point – there was a reason Cabramatta was known as the heroin capital of Australia. But she resented that an outsider – a freckle-faced blondie with a thick drawl that suggested he wasn’t from southwest Sydney – was painting her home in the same unflattering wash that made everyone who lived there two-dimensional, hopeless, the same. Because it wasn’t like drug dealers were going door to door like the Avon lady. It wasn’t like Ky was tripping over mounds of heroin on her walk to Woolies or Red Lea. And it wasn’t like everyone’s lives revolved around drugs and gangs and crime. There was more to Cabramatta than that.’
~~~
‘Because that was the paradox of Cabramatta – it wasn’t like other crime-ridden suburbs where drugs and gangs depressed the local economy and bled the town grey. Cabramatta still had the best pho and best banh mi; noisy, colourful, crowded markets; and everywhere you looked, chatty, opinionated old women in visors whose laughs and complaints filled the air with an energetic buzz. Cabramatta proved that a town could be gorgeous and sick, comforting and dangerous, imperfect but home.’

I was reminded over and over throughout this novel that the experiences of new Australians differ vastly between those who are migrants and those who are refugees. Multi-culturalism in action; its meaning all depends on where you’re from and how you got here.

‘Stop pretending like you haven’t seen it or felt it for yourself. They’re all fair dinkum this and everyone gets a fair go that. This is the luckiest country in the world, right? The weather’s beautiful and there’s so much land and look at our beaches and everyone can get a decent-paying job and we’re so lucky to have all of that, right? But they don’t tell us that the luck doesn’t extend to us. That’s the big lie. They’ve been shoving it down our throats since we were kids. You’re a fool if you believe it. Not only are they not gonna look out for us, they’re gonna turn on us the moment they think we’re a threat. You know this. We have to look out for ourselves.’

The writing style is precise and deeply felt, the story absorbing, the social and political history of Australia confronting and sharply realised. This is not a comforting story with a happy warm ending. It’s a realistic and confronting look at Australia’s not so distant past and ever-present policies about refugees. Deeply thought provoking and emotionally charged, a must-read.

‘There is no way for me to tell her that we’ve lost so much more – more than time with our parents, more than time with each other. There is no way for me to tell her that the loss began well before we were born, that our parents had loss, and their parents had loss, and our ancestors had loss – loss of home, loss of place, loss of self, loss of life – and we were born with that loss, carried it, burdened by it, part of it.’

Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.

[Sharon Metcalf · Rating 4 out of 5]

All That's Left Unsaid is Tracey Lien's debut novel.   By the end I had come to appreciate, probably even like, this book but at first I found it utterly depressing.    I couldn't come to terms with the characters who all seemed unlikeable and I found I couldn't relate to them at all.   Yet, I think that was the point of the book.   The author gradually opened my eyes to the reasons characters behaved the way they did.     Helped me appreciate the difficulties of being a refugee in Australia, the so-called Lucky Country.   Helped me understand the massive cultural differences which made full assimilation into their new homeland so unlikely.   Helped me join the dots about the impacts of war and loss, and the propensity for alcoholism, drug use, and violence.

The blurb had me feeling compelled to read this book about the homicide of Denny a sixteen year old boy.   Killed in a busy restaurant where he was celebrating being valedictorian of his class.    Dressed in his suit and dining with friends and one of their favourite teachers, he was beaten to death.    Yet not one single person admitted to having seen anything.      The police were baffled but their investigations were futile so Denny's older sister Ky, a Melbourne based journallist, was determined to find out what really happened and why.


This is very much a case of walking a mile in another person's shoes to understand attitudes and mindsets.    It seemed that even those who thought they knew Denny best began to question his good boy, perfect reputation.     There was a layer of stigma that sat over everything and everyone in Cabramatta.     The idea that every Asian boy was part of a gang, was selling or using drugs was just accepted.  So if someone was unexpectedly beaten to death the temptation was to believe the victim, no matter how innocent, must somehow have been involved with the criminal element as opposed to an innocent in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Alternating perspectives were offered helping readers (this reader at least) have their blinkers removed.    Every one of those witnesses who denied seeing anything had their reasons and as we learnt of their back stories, their inner emotions, even their  justifications I gradually opened my mind and heart to their plights.     I'm not suggesting that I condone gangs or drug use - far from it - but somehow everything which had seemed so unfathomable to me began to make more sense by books end.
As an example, the 5T gang, named for five Vietnamese words beginning with T which essentially translated to Childhood without Love.     An incredibly sad reality for many in the book and by all accounts in the real life Cabramatta of the 90's.    Other factors such as the astronomical pressure to succeed that many Asian families put upon their children.    The children themselves not wanting to do wrong by families who have given up everything in their homelands, coming to Australia as refugees, not being able to speak the language or to assimilate.    Parents who were unable to forget the traumas of the war and by association distrusting the Australian police expecting them to be as ruthless and dishonest as those they encountered in their homeland.

I could go on but should stop and leave something for readers to uncover on their own.   In summary, having written my review I think I rate it more highly than I expected to at first.    It's not an uplifting story, nor did I think of it as a mystery in the traditional sense but it is, I think, a unique and important tale which casts a light on a community whose reputation became tainted but which none-the-less is part of Australia's recent history.

My thanks and congratulations to the author, to Harper Collins and NetGalley for the opportunity of reading this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Jülie ☼♄  · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cabramatta in the mid 1990’s…..an inner Sydney suburb made up of predominantly asian cultures and heavily populated with Vietnamese people of refugee status, along with the next generation of their families…many of whom, though born here, still feel like aliens…not really Vietnamese and not really Australian.
Often cruelly referred to as fobs or fresh of the boat people, they live in the only way they know how, cocooning themselves within their suburban enclave and supporting the growth of their community within a community by working hard for little reward. Wanting only the very best education for their children in the belief/hope that it will give them better opportunities for their future.
But Cabramatta has become renowned for its high turnover of drugs, and drug related violent crime, boasting the highest heroin epidemic in Australian history.

Ky Tran and her younger brother Denny are children of refugee parents who have always lived in Cabramatta.
They’re parents settled into Cabramatta where their father got a job as a bank teller and their mother worked very long hours on the sewing machines (probably in a sweat shop) for very low wages and no time off…time off for any reason was taken without pay. Life was hard and confusingly cruel.
Both Ky and Denny were latchkey kids who went to the local schools and were good students with reputations for being good well behaved kids.
Their parents were very strict but fair and raised them to be honest and dependable.

When Ky graduated she left home to pursue a career as a journalist in Melbourne and once having broken the strong parental hold over her, she gained an independent spirit and an attitude to support it. She was doing alright for herself and found that life away from Cabramatta and the influence of her strict parents was not as bad as they wanted her to believe.
So when Ky convinced her mother to loosen her strict hold on young Denny, and let him go out to celebrate his high school graduation night with his friends at a popular Cabramatta restaurant, nobody could have imagined what would happen.
The timeline of events that led to the moment which culminated in Denny falling unconscious to the floor of that busy restaurant could almost convince you that it was preordained.
Denny was beaten to death…And nobody saw it happen.

The story takes us into the very heart of that grieving family and their individual feelings of despair and self blame for what happened.
Inexplicably the family were never given any feedback about the crime or the circumstances around the investigations, and their insurmountable grief and sense of responsibility precluded their need to know…nothing would bring Denny back.
Thus, Ky takes it upon herself to find and follow up on every lead in a desperate bid to stop her parent’s spiral into despair, and also to assuage her own feelings of inadequacy.

Such a very sad story, all the more so because it is probably closer to the truth than we’d like to think.
It all comes down to cause and effect and that final, unconsidered knee jerk reaction that changes everything in the blink of an eye.
This is a very accomplished work of fiction from a debut author, a very moving and thought provoking story that will give you a glimpse into another world, existing right within your own world.

4⭐️s

With thanks to NetGalley and the Publishers for my copy to read and review.

[Ivana - Diary of Difference · Rating 4 out of 5]

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If you are looking to try a different take on mystery, All That’s Left Unsaid is a great book to start. It has the right amount of mystery and emotion to get you invested and keep you intrigued until the very end.

Synopsis

Just let him go. These are the words Ky Tran will forever regret. The words she spoke when her parents called to ask if they should let her younger brother Denny out to celebrate his high school graduation with friends. That night, Denny–optimistic, guileless, brilliant Denny–is brutally murdered inside a busy restaurant in the Sydney suburb of Cabramatta, a refugee enclave facing violent crime, an indifferent police force, and the worst heroin epidemic in Australian history.

Returning home to Cabramatta for the funeral, Ky learns that the police are stumped by Denny’s case: a dozen people were at Lucky 8 restaurant when Denny died, but each of the bystanders claim to have seen nothing.

Desperately hoping that understanding what happened might ease her suffocating guilt, Ky sets aside her grief and determines to track down the witnesses herself. With each encounter, she peels back another layer of the place that shaped her and Denny, exposing the seeds of violence that were planted well before that fateful celebration dinner: by colonialism, by the war in Vietnam, and by the choices they’ve all made to survive.

My Thoughts:

“You can’t be there for everyone. You can’t be everything to everyone. People will make their own choices, no matter what you do.”

My goodness, this book is beauty and heartbreak, brilliantly put together. It will hold a special place in my heart. All That’s Left Unsaid is quite close to me, not because Ky will lose a brother. I’ve never felt such loss and I hope to never feel it. But Ky speaks to me because of who she is and where she comes from. Being an immigrant myself, I could connect with Ky’s story in a way that I didn’t anticipate I would. I’ve read many books with this topic before, and didn’t quite click with a character in a way I clicked with Ky. The culture differences and the lost sense of belonging casts a shadow on every written page.

“When I’m away from Cabra, I feel like I’ve shed my own skin. But whenever I come back here, it’s like I didn’t shed anything at all. It’s like I’ve just flipped a switch, you know? And my old self was there all along.”

I devoured this book, because it entwined these motives into an interesting and emotional mystery. Ky is trying to find out who her brother has become in her absence from home. And why he is now suddenly dead. Everyone is keeping secrets and Ky is not sure who to trust.

“It wasn’t the punishment itself that Ky feared. It was the look. The look that said, I expected more from you. I’m disappointed in you. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

I also enjoyed how her past friendship ends up having a role in her present life. The author can portray broken relationships in a very relatable way. Drug abuse and drug dealing are a main topic in this book and they often come up – so please be aware if this may trigger you whilst reading.

“Would an explanation of why something was not done in the past make you feel better? Because if it would change your life for the better and put happiness in your heart, pull up a chair and I will explain everything I have never done.”

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Just let him go.’ ‘Those are words Ky Tran will ever regret.’

Cabramatta, Sydney. A brutal bashing at a Vietnamese restaurant leaves teenager Denny Tran dead. Ky Tran returns home to attend her brother’s funeral and tries to find out what happened to her gentle, studious brother. It seems that no one witnessed Denny’s murder even though the restaurant was busy. Ky approaches the police for answers but finds that they are overwhelmed by gang-related crime and drugs. However, Ky obtains a list of names of those who were in the restaurant and embarks on her own investigation.

Ky is staying with her parents and has to negotiate their expectations of her as a daughter as well as their shared grief over the loss of their son. Her father is near paralysed with grief, while her mother tries to control Ky.

Ms Lien’s novel plunges the reader into Cabramatta during the 1990s when Cabramatta was a hub for drug gangs. In order to find answers, Ky has to return to a world she thought that she had left behind. Ky is sure that her brother would not have been involved with either gangs or drugs, yet others are telling her that Denny was not as innocent as she thought. What is the truth?

‘Everyone thinks that because we are all refugees and we all came from the same country that we should be friends.’

As Ky searches for answers, we are taken into a world where the (then recent) Vietnamese refugees are trying to adapt to life in Australia while dealing with their own past trauma. While language is an issue for many, differing cultural values make settlement more challenging. Drugs, disillusion, an overwhelmed and at times disinterested police force all make Cabramatta unsafe and Ky’s search more difficult.

The story unfolds, alternating between Ky’s voice and those of the witnesses. This is a deeply uncomfortable journey for Ky as she tries to negotiate the obligations and ties of friendship, family and community.

This is Ms Lien’s debut novel, and she makes both Cabramatta of the 1990s and the challenges faced by the Tran family real. At almost every turn, Ky faces cultural issues including perceptions of the Vietnamese community and her parents’ expectations coloured by grief.

A terrific read!

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Australia HQ for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Amanda - Mrs B's Book Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

*https://www.instagram.com/mrsb_book_r...

🥢The broken image of a cultural fabric on the front of Tracey Lien’s debut novel is symbolic of the entire novel. This is a fractured, fragile, sad, heartbreaking and devastating tale, shelved as a literary mystery novel. All That’s Left Unsaid is a highly regarded story of trauma, grief, death, misunderstanding, family, friendships, honour and identity. It is a book that I experienced a rather unsteady relationship with, but I appreciated its intent nonetheless.

🥢All That’s Left Unsaid has been nominated for the Stella Prize and it also received the sixth annual MUD Literary Prize in 2023. All these factors, along with some highly rated reviews from my fellow book bloggers encouraged me to finally read this September 2022 publication. I was excited to read this one and understand why there has been some much buzz around this debut.

🥢I think when I accept that All That’s Left Unsaid is not a full-blown crime mystery novel, I will feel more satisfied about my reading experience with Tracey Lien’s debut. I initially went into this HQ publication expecting a compelling crime fiction novel with a distinct Vietnamese/Australian flavour. However, what I discovered upon reading was a strong character focussed and thematic novel, with a rich social commentary behind it. Denny’s murder mystery only takes up a segment of the novel itself, it is more the driving force to Ky’s resulting investigation into her brother’s wrongful death. What follows is a world of division, racism, trauma, war, survival, displacement, violence, cultural discrimination, family pressures, poverty, loss of identity, the drug epidemic and language barriers. This is just a touch of what to expect in Tracey Lien’s novel. While I was deeply appreciative of this eye-opening assault on the immigrant experience in the suburb of Cabramatta in Sydney, I honestly struggled through this one. I cannot fault the writing, it is hard to accept this is a debut. However, I think it was just not what I was expecting.

⭐️⭐️⭐️3 stars

🙏Thank you to the team at @harlequinaus

[Novel Visits · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many thanks to @williammorrowbooks for an ARC of #AllThatsLeftUnsaid which releases tomorrow!

𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧’𝗦 𝗟𝗘𝗙𝗧 𝗨𝗡𝗦𝗔𝗜𝗗 is a very fitting title for Tracey Lein’s debut, the sad story of a Vietnamese family who immigrated to Australia in the 1980’s. Ky Tran was six at the time, while her brother Denny was born in the Sydney suburb inhabited by many Southeast Asian immigrants. Ky spent her life trying to live up to her mother’s high expectations and her father’s alcohol induced ennui, while also functioning as their translator for the English speaking population around them. Between them all, much was left unsaid, compelling Ky to flee for college, only returning for the briefest of visits. That changed on the eve of her brother’s high school graduation when he was brutally killed. ⁣
⁣
𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘓𝘦𝘧𝘵 𝘜𝘯𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 is the story of Ky’s desperate search to find the reason for her brother’s murder, friendships lost, and her own disconnect from her parents. This was not a fast-paced nor a happy book, but it was a heart-felt one that really made me think about the tough road often faced by immigrants, especially children. I thought Lein did a great job juxtaposing Ky’s duty to her dependent Vietnamese parents, and her own desire to fit in as an Australian. I also liked the mystery elements around her brother’s death, though I guessed what had happened early on. I thought this was a solid debut and would definitely read what Lein writes next. ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75⁣
⁣
Many thanks to @williammorrowbooks for an ARC of #AllThatsLeftUnsaid which releases tomorrow!

[Caitlin (CMAReads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to William Morrow for the free book.
This was a heart-breaking, yet beautiful debut. Lien captures grief and the desire to figure out what happened in this Australia town that is being taken over by the opioid epidemic. Ky wants to figure out what happened to her brother, Denny. What I liked about this novel was the format. Between Ky's chapters, the author tells the story from the POV of the people in the restaurant where Denny was killed - where each character saw nothing. I liked how this gave insight to the community and everything happening there while also slowly unfolding this mystery. Each character was also influenced by their link to Vietnam and immigrating to Australia. I liked the slow unfolding and thought it added intrigue and gave some depth to the story. This was a heavy debut that captured so many nuances that kept me engaged. It is out now!