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Wandering Souls
One of Time Magazine's Must-Read Books of the Year
Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Excellence in Fiction 2024
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023
“A deeply humane and genre-defying work of love and uncompromising hope.” —Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous and Time Is a Mother
There are the goodbyes and then the fishing out of the bodies—everything in between is speculation.
After the last American troops leave Vietnam, siblings Anh, Minh, and Thanh journey to Hong Kong with the promise that their parents and younger siblings will soon follow. But when tragedy strikes, the three children are left orphaned, and sixteen-year-old Anh becomes the caretaker for her two younger brothers overnight.
In the years that follow, Anh and her brothers immigrate to the UK, living first in overcrowded camps and resettlement centers and then, later, in a modernizing London plagued by social inequality. Anh works in a factory to pay the bills. Minh loiters about with fellow high school dropouts. Thanh, the youngest, plays soccer with his friends after class. As they mature, each sibling reckons with survivor’s guilt, unmoored by their parents’ absence. And with every choice, their paths diverge further, until it’s unclear if love alone can keep them together.
Told through lyrical narrative threads, historical research, voices from lost family, and notes by an unnamed narrator determined to chart these siblings’ fates, Wandering Souls captures the lives of a family marked by loss yet relentless in the pursuit of a better future. With urgency and precision, it affirms that the most important stories are those we claim for ourselves, establishing Cecile Pin as a masterful new literary voice.
Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Excellence in Fiction 2024
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023
“A deeply humane and genre-defying work of love and uncompromising hope.” —Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous and Time Is a Mother
There are the goodbyes and then the fishing out of the bodies—everything in between is speculation.
After the last American troops leave Vietnam, siblings Anh, Minh, and Thanh journey to Hong Kong with the promise that their parents and younger siblings will soon follow. But when tragedy strikes, the three children are left orphaned, and sixteen-year-old Anh becomes the caretaker for her two younger brothers overnight.
In the years that follow, Anh and her brothers immigrate to the UK, living first in overcrowded camps and resettlement centers and then, later, in a modernizing London plagued by social inequality. Anh works in a factory to pay the bills. Minh loiters about with fellow high school dropouts. Thanh, the youngest, plays soccer with his friends after class. As they mature, each sibling reckons with survivor’s guilt, unmoored by their parents’ absence. And with every choice, their paths diverge further, until it’s unclear if love alone can keep them together.
Told through lyrical narrative threads, historical research, voices from lost family, and notes by an unnamed narrator determined to chart these siblings’ fates, Wandering Souls captures the lives of a family marked by loss yet relentless in the pursuit of a better future. With urgency and precision, it affirms that the most important stories are those we claim for ourselves, establishing Cecile Pin as a masterful new literary voice.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published March 21, 2023
542 people are currently reading
49089 people want to read
About the author
Cecile Pin
5 books263 followersCecile Pin grew up in Paris and New York City. She moved to London at eighteen to study philosophy at University College London and received an MA at King’s College London. She writes for Bad Form Review, was long-listed for their Young Writers’ Prize, and is a 2021 London Writers Award winner. Wandering Souls is her first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,157 reviews
August 10, 2023
I can't even begin to imagine how it must feel to be faced with the fact that you can never return to your home. That most precious of places - a safe haven from all the madness that takes place in the big outside world. However, this is exactly what our family in Wandering Souls has to endure, not only that, but it also brings great tragedy in its wake.
A new life in the United States beckons, though not by choice. If this family stays in Vietnam, they are in serious danger. Siblings Sixteen-year-old Anh,and her brothers, thirteen year old Minh and ten year old Thanh are the first to embark on this perilous journey, with their parents and four remaining siblings to follow on another boat a few weeks later.
After some weeks it becomes clear that the rest of their family have not made the trip safely, and the three siblings have no option but to travel on to refugee camps, then onto resettlement camps, finally arriving in the UK and not the United States as they had planned.
They must build new lives in this strange country without their parents and their other four siblings.
This then is their story, as they work through their grief and trauma and uncertainty. This is Cecile Pin’s debut novel. It’s raw, it’s emotional, and highlights the horrors and human hardships behind the daily headlines.
*Thank you to Netgalley and 4th estate and William Collins for my ARC in exchange for an honest unbiased review *
A new life in the United States beckons, though not by choice. If this family stays in Vietnam, they are in serious danger. Siblings Sixteen-year-old Anh,and her brothers, thirteen year old Minh and ten year old Thanh are the first to embark on this perilous journey, with their parents and four remaining siblings to follow on another boat a few weeks later.
After some weeks it becomes clear that the rest of their family have not made the trip safely, and the three siblings have no option but to travel on to refugee camps, then onto resettlement camps, finally arriving in the UK and not the United States as they had planned.
They must build new lives in this strange country without their parents and their other four siblings.
This then is their story, as they work through their grief and trauma and uncertainty. This is Cecile Pin’s debut novel. It’s raw, it’s emotional, and highlights the horrors and human hardships behind the daily headlines.
*Thank you to Netgalley and 4th estate and William Collins for my ARC in exchange for an honest unbiased review *
June 13, 2023
This is a conceptually interesting debut from Cecile Pin, albeit one that didn't work for me in practice. The main character is a second-generation immigrant, Jane, whose family made their way to the UK in the early Thatcher years as a part of a group of refugees known as boat people. I found most of the story almost unreadable. The early narrative was a retread of countless immigrant stories, the characters and story beats interchangeable with other accounts we've all read dozens of times. The prose was melodramatic in all the wrong ways. Some of the passages, like those voiced by the dead brother, were just plain silly. But then, in the last third of the novel, we come to see that Pin has framed this in an interesting way. What we eventually see as the outer frame, set in the more recent past, re-contextualizes everything that came before as an attempt to exercise grief and trauma felt by a second generation immigrant. Ultimately, it is a story about the power of writing to heal. I ended the book with an appreciation for Pin's efforts, but there's no denying that almost all of it is dreadful to read.
April 12, 2023
4.5⭐️(rounded up)
“Knowledge allows remembering, and remembering is honoring.”
In an effort to flee post-war –Vietnam in search of a new life, a family decides to flee to the United States, where they have family waiting for them. Sixteen-year-old Anh, ten-year-old Thanh and Minh thirteen at the time, are the first to embark on this perilous journey, with their parents and remaining siblings to follow. In a tragic turn of events, their parents and younger siblings do not survive the first leg of the journey. Anh and her brothers are rejected for asylum in the United States and eventually are admitted into the United Kingdom – a journey that takes two years and stretches at refugee camps in Hong Kong and finally in the UK, where they await resettlement. We go on to follow Anh, now responsible for her younger brothers as she and her siblings process their losses, cope with the trauma they have witnessed and endured and strive to adjust to life in their adopted country.
The narrative is presented to us in three threads. The first is the story of Anh and her two siblings, presented in the third person narrative format predominantly from Anh’s perspective that follows their story from 1978 to the present day. The second thread is the first-person narrative of Dao, one of their younger brothers who did not survive the journey along with their parents, floating in the afterlife and keeping watch over his three surviving siblings. The third thread is that of a writer (whose identity is revealed later on in the narrative) in the present day who is drafting a story based on Anh’s experiences, documenting her research. The threads do come across as a tad disjointed and it took a while to get used to the abrupt change in narrative especially when the writer’s thread is presented to us.
“I am trying to carve out a story between the macabre and the fairy tale, so that a glimmer of truth can appear.”
Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin is a beautifully written, well-researched, insightful and thought-provoking story. The story touches upon themes of immigration, the refugee crisis, grief, loss, survivor's guilt, generational trauma and healing. While the story sheds a light on the perilous journey of Vietnamese boat refugees and refugees and immigrants all around the world who are compelled to embark on dangerous journeys seeking sanctuary, the author also sheds a light on generational trauma and how grief casts a shadow on the lives of those who are both, directly and indirectly, affected by a loss. I can’t help pondering over the significance of the title of this novel. The novel references Operation Wandering Soul - a psychological warfare campaign exercised by US troops during the Vietnam War that revolved around the Vietnamese belief that their dead must be given a proper burial in their hometown, failing which their souls would aimlessly wander the earth. We also meet a wandering soul, Dao, Anh’s younger sibling. The term "wandering souls" also signifies the sense of displacement and loss that refugees struggle with in their search for a sense of home and belongingness in their adopted country. The author references several horrific real events such as the rape and torture of Vietnamese refugees by Thai fishermen on the Thai island of Koh Kra in 1979 and the Essex Lorry Deaths of 2019 while also giving us a glimpse into the immigration policies and politics in the UK during that period. Overall, this is an incredibly moving and impactful read and a stunning debut. I can’t wait to read more from this talented new author.
I paired my reading with excellent audio narration by Aoife Hinds, Ioanna Kimbook and Ainsleigh Barber that brought these characters and this story to life.
“We fill in the gaps. We find stories in every little moment and gather them up readily. We imagine that the unknown isn’t the worst scenario and we try to make sense of the senseless. We look for the silver linings and the whys and what- ifs and what- should- have- beens. We try to solve the puzzle, pieces scattered through time and space and the deepest corners of our memories. And what better way is there of doing that, what better way is there of processing our past, than by rewriting it?”
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“Knowledge allows remembering, and remembering is honoring.”
In an effort to flee post-war –Vietnam in search of a new life, a family decides to flee to the United States, where they have family waiting for them. Sixteen-year-old Anh, ten-year-old Thanh and Minh thirteen at the time, are the first to embark on this perilous journey, with their parents and remaining siblings to follow. In a tragic turn of events, their parents and younger siblings do not survive the first leg of the journey. Anh and her brothers are rejected for asylum in the United States and eventually are admitted into the United Kingdom – a journey that takes two years and stretches at refugee camps in Hong Kong and finally in the UK, where they await resettlement. We go on to follow Anh, now responsible for her younger brothers as she and her siblings process their losses, cope with the trauma they have witnessed and endured and strive to adjust to life in their adopted country.
The narrative is presented to us in three threads. The first is the story of Anh and her two siblings, presented in the third person narrative format predominantly from Anh’s perspective that follows their story from 1978 to the present day. The second thread is the first-person narrative of Dao, one of their younger brothers who did not survive the journey along with their parents, floating in the afterlife and keeping watch over his three surviving siblings. The third thread is that of a writer (whose identity is revealed later on in the narrative) in the present day who is drafting a story based on Anh’s experiences, documenting her research. The threads do come across as a tad disjointed and it took a while to get used to the abrupt change in narrative especially when the writer’s thread is presented to us.
“I am trying to carve out a story between the macabre and the fairy tale, so that a glimmer of truth can appear.”
Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin is a beautifully written, well-researched, insightful and thought-provoking story. The story touches upon themes of immigration, the refugee crisis, grief, loss, survivor's guilt, generational trauma and healing. While the story sheds a light on the perilous journey of Vietnamese boat refugees and refugees and immigrants all around the world who are compelled to embark on dangerous journeys seeking sanctuary, the author also sheds a light on generational trauma and how grief casts a shadow on the lives of those who are both, directly and indirectly, affected by a loss. I can’t help pondering over the significance of the title of this novel. The novel references Operation Wandering Soul - a psychological warfare campaign exercised by US troops during the Vietnam War that revolved around the Vietnamese belief that their dead must be given a proper burial in their hometown, failing which their souls would aimlessly wander the earth. We also meet a wandering soul, Dao, Anh’s younger sibling. The term "wandering souls" also signifies the sense of displacement and loss that refugees struggle with in their search for a sense of home and belongingness in their adopted country. The author references several horrific real events such as the rape and torture of Vietnamese refugees by Thai fishermen on the Thai island of Koh Kra in 1979 and the Essex Lorry Deaths of 2019 while also giving us a glimpse into the immigration policies and politics in the UK during that period. Overall, this is an incredibly moving and impactful read and a stunning debut. I can’t wait to read more from this talented new author.
I paired my reading with excellent audio narration by Aoife Hinds, Ioanna Kimbook and Ainsleigh Barber that brought these characters and this story to life.
“We fill in the gaps. We find stories in every little moment and gather them up readily. We imagine that the unknown isn’t the worst scenario and we try to make sense of the senseless. We look for the silver linings and the whys and what- ifs and what- should- have- beens. We try to solve the puzzle, pieces scattered through time and space and the deepest corners of our memories. And what better way is there of doing that, what better way is there of processing our past, than by rewriting it?”
Connect with me!
My Blog
The StoryGraph
April 25, 2025
I'm Vietnamese American. You're probably very aware of this fact if you read any of my reviews. I'd say my favorite genre as of late is own voices, specifically Asian stories set in the wider diaspora. There is a large influx of East Asian literature, but more recently I've come to find more Southeast Asian and South Asian literature.
I've read this before. I felt rather ambivalent about it. Sujoya recently read it and gave it 4.5 stars, so I thought I would try again, this time on audio. Poor choice on my part. There are seemingly three narrators. I had to look up to see if any of them were actually Vietnamese, because the pronunciations are just awful. If I hadn't previously read this book on paperback, I wouldn't have even known the protagonist's name is Anh. The narrator kept calling her Ann. I am pained.
I suppose I could review the book itself. Anh and her brothers resettle in the UK, even though their initial plan is the US, because she lies and doesn't mention an uncle living in the US. That would've expedited their application. They tragically lose their parents and siblings before this point. While I easily followed Anh and her brothers' lives, the more confusing POV is from one of the dead siblings. I'm not sure what it added to the story.
While the US hosts a very large Vietnamese population, the UK's is much smaller. I won't get into Margaret Thatcher's politics. I'm not even fond of speaking on the US' quite similar views. Obviously, growing up in the US, I have met countless Vietnamese Americans. I have only encountered one Vietnamese British family.
In any case, it's interesting to see how the Vietnamese community struggles and thrives abroad. While we share similar experiences, there will always be something that is inherently different. For a Vietnamese Australian book, I recommend ALL THAT'S LEFT UNSAID.
📖 Thank you to Goodreads and Henry Holt and Co.
🎧 Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio
I've read this before. I felt rather ambivalent about it. Sujoya recently read it and gave it 4.5 stars, so I thought I would try again, this time on audio. Poor choice on my part. There are seemingly three narrators. I had to look up to see if any of them were actually Vietnamese, because the pronunciations are just awful. If I hadn't previously read this book on paperback, I wouldn't have even known the protagonist's name is Anh. The narrator kept calling her Ann. I am pained.
I suppose I could review the book itself. Anh and her brothers resettle in the UK, even though their initial plan is the US, because she lies and doesn't mention an uncle living in the US. That would've expedited their application. They tragically lose their parents and siblings before this point. While I easily followed Anh and her brothers' lives, the more confusing POV is from one of the dead siblings. I'm not sure what it added to the story.
While the US hosts a very large Vietnamese population, the UK's is much smaller. I won't get into Margaret Thatcher's politics. I'm not even fond of speaking on the US' quite similar views. Obviously, growing up in the US, I have met countless Vietnamese Americans. I have only encountered one Vietnamese British family.
In any case, it's interesting to see how the Vietnamese community struggles and thrives abroad. While we share similar experiences, there will always be something that is inherently different. For a Vietnamese Australian book, I recommend ALL THAT'S LEFT UNSAID.
📖 Thank you to Goodreads and Henry Holt and Co.
🎧 Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio
April 15, 2024
i love family dramas.
this one just felt too short.
i would follow the lines of a family for 300, 400, 500 pages. i've followed them for 800+! 240 pages doesn't feel like enough to see the full dimensions of their dynamics, the traces of family they carry, to develop full characters i'll remember forever.
while there are moments of this that struck me, in truth there just weren't enough moments for this to stick with me.
except, if i'm honest, some of the silly ones.
bottom line: not enough time to do too much.
2.5
this one just felt too short.
i would follow the lines of a family for 300, 400, 500 pages. i've followed them for 800+! 240 pages doesn't feel like enough to see the full dimensions of their dynamics, the traces of family they carry, to develop full characters i'll remember forever.
while there are moments of this that struck me, in truth there just weren't enough moments for this to stick with me.
except, if i'm honest, some of the silly ones.
bottom line: not enough time to do too much.
2.5
May 17, 2023
This title evokes feelings of loneliness. Of constantly being on the search for something that can measure the losses one has suffered.
The quest for the American dream comes at a cost.
For Anh and her 2 brothers a journey to America becomes a harrowing experience landing them in England. Not the dream they had envisioned with their parents.
The discrimination refugees experienced. The hardships to make ends meet. The suffering endured and the survivor’s guilt.
This isn’t just Vietnamese history. It’s American history. It’s England’s history. It’s Canadian history.
As good as the story was, it unfortunately fell flat for me. I just wasn’t able to connect with Anh.
3.75⭐️
The quest for the American dream comes at a cost.
For Anh and her 2 brothers a journey to America becomes a harrowing experience landing them in England. Not the dream they had envisioned with their parents.
The discrimination refugees experienced. The hardships to make ends meet. The suffering endured and the survivor’s guilt.
This isn’t just Vietnamese history. It’s American history. It’s England’s history. It’s Canadian history.
As good as the story was, it unfortunately fell flat for me. I just wasn’t able to connect with Anh.
3.75⭐️
September 9, 2025
In a Nutshell: A historical literary fiction about a Vietnamese family trying to make a new life in the Western world. The characters and the plot are mostly of the tried-and-tested kind. Haven’t read a novel in this setting before, so it was enlightening in some ways. The writing approach though left me with mixed feelings. Too flat and distanced to be emotionally impactful and too hurried to be intellectually impactful. Not bad, but I anticipated far better from an OwnVoices work. This is an outlier review.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Plot Preview:
Bookish Yays:
⛵ The “boat people” details. I liked that the book is based in the UK instead of the USA. I’ve not read anything about the Vietnamese-British before, so this was informative in that regard.
⛵ Neither a typical immigrant success story nor a typical immigrant failure story. Stays on the realistic mid-path for the most way.
⛵ The little political tidbits (especially Margaret Thatcher’s policy on refugee handling) and the actual newspaper articles related to refugee experiences. Though the latter numbered just a couple of entries, they were still the most shocking.
⛵ The title. Significant because it is derived from 'Operation Wandering Soul', a psychological warfare tactic conducted by the US armed forces during the Vietnam war to defeat the Việt Cộng morale and encourage desertions. The title also has two secondary meanings in the book, a literal one as well as a metaphorical one. A really clever nomenclature for such a story.
Bookish Mixed Bags:
🚣🏻♀️ Anh as the main character. Great potential, especially in her doubts and uncertainties over the future. But after a while, her ‘woe-is-me’ attitude begins to get tiresome. There’s hardly any scene where she shows gratitude for her new circumstances. A more balanced and nuanced portrayal would have helped us not just relate to her but also root for her.
🚣🏻♀️ As expected from a debut novel on such an ambitious topic, the story covers a plethora of themes, including death of loved ones, grief, displacement from home and country, immigrant challenges, xenophobia, racism, intergenerational trauma, cultural expectations, trauma, colonialism, and a lot more. While many of these sound interconnected, some feel shoved in, especially when a remark doesn’t sound like the character’s voice but the author’s voice popping in for an unrelated comment about racism.
🚣🏻♀️ Only scattered details about Viet culture. We are told many things, but experience only a few.
Bookish Nays:
🌊 The sibling relationship across the main trio begins well, but after a point, the focus remains only on Anh, even though we see Minh’s trajectory going a challenging way. The other characters don’t even get enough page space. The portrayal of the few white characters is fairly stereotypical.
🌊 Despite the extensive list of hard-hitting themes, the emotions never feel intense. Most of the plot stays stoic in its reportage, leading to a disconnect from the pain.
🌊 A lot of unnecessary foreshadowing right from the start, leading to premature information on key events.
🌊 The unnamed narrator whose identity comes out only towards the end. It is so much tougher to relate to a character when you don’t know who’s talking and the events they are narrating feel so random.
🌊 One of the first-person POVs, the ‘wandering soul’ interlude. (You’ll know what I mean if you read the book.) An interesting writing choice, but also a weird one. This adds needless magical realism to a story that doesn’t need it, and contributes nothing to the overall plot.
🌊 The random back-and-forth time jumps, all the worse on audio as they don’t always come with an accompanying timestamp. The structure feels quite messy and if you don’t pay attention to the dates, you might find yourself lost. One of the time jumps is of almost two decades: too long for such a small book.
🌊 The world-building and atmosphere is minimal. The story stays character-focussed to such an extent that we know nothing except the characters.
🌊 The story spans more than four decades, and yet the book is only 240 pages long. That should show you how rushed everything is. The nuances that take a story from good to memorable don’t get any space.
🎧 The Audiobook Experience:
The audiobook, clocking at 5 hrs 13 min, is narrated by Aoife Hinds, Ioanna Kimbook and Ainsleigh Barber. Of these, only Barber is half-Vietnamese in origin though she was born in the UK. So not exactly OwnVoices narrators. This affects the credibility of the narration, especially as there are two POVs that ought to sound Vietnamese at least in their dialogues.
Further, thanks to the frequent time jumps and shifting POVs, the audio version isn't that easy to follow, all the more as the identity of the speaker and the timestamp aren’t always mentioned. I wouldn’t really recommend the audio version.
Overall, while the book tackles a community not often seen in fiction – the Vietnamese-British, the execution leaves far to be desired. The intent of this debut novel is in the right place, but the writing style and structure could have done with some finetuning.
A majority of readers have appreciated this story much better, and it was even longlisted for two major literary prizes in 2023. Mine is thus an outlier review. Please do read others’ thoughts and take a more informed decision on this book.
This might work better with those who have not much familiarity with immigrant narratives as they might find this more illuminating.
2.5 stars, rounding down for the audio version.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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My Blog || The StoryGraph || Instagram || Facebook ||
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Plot Preview:
In 1978, a Vietnamese father decides to follow his brother and make a new life for his family in the USA. He sends his eldest three children – Anh, Minh and Thanh (16, 13 and 10 respectively) – ahead to Hong Kong, with a promise that the rest of them will arrive in a few weeks. However, an unexpected tragedy leaves the trio orphaned, and young Anh suddenly finds herself as the sole caretaker of her two younger brothers.
As the months and years go by, we see Anh and her brothers live through the refugee camps, and finally settle in a new country. Not the one they wanted but one they need to accept as the best available option. Life in the UK is not a bed of roses, and the thorns seem to come up with greater frequency. Will Anh be able to fulfil the dreams of her late parents and make a better life for her brothers?
The story comes to us across multiple timelines (spanning four+ decades) and character perspectives. We get Anh’s third-person POV, and two other characters’ first-person POV in interludes, one of whom is unidentified for a major chunk of the narrative. There are also some interim snippets from real-life news articles and events, detailing the political situation and refugee policy of the Thatcher government, AND also some recollections from soldiers involved in ‘Operation Wandering Soul.’
Bookish Yays:
⛵ The “boat people” details. I liked that the book is based in the UK instead of the USA. I’ve not read anything about the Vietnamese-British before, so this was informative in that regard.
⛵ Neither a typical immigrant success story nor a typical immigrant failure story. Stays on the realistic mid-path for the most way.
⛵ The little political tidbits (especially Margaret Thatcher’s policy on refugee handling) and the actual newspaper articles related to refugee experiences. Though the latter numbered just a couple of entries, they were still the most shocking.
⛵ The title. Significant because it is derived from 'Operation Wandering Soul', a psychological warfare tactic conducted by the US armed forces during the Vietnam war to defeat the Việt Cộng morale and encourage desertions. The title also has two secondary meanings in the book, a literal one as well as a metaphorical one. A really clever nomenclature for such a story.
Bookish Mixed Bags:
🚣🏻♀️ Anh as the main character. Great potential, especially in her doubts and uncertainties over the future. But after a while, her ‘woe-is-me’ attitude begins to get tiresome. There’s hardly any scene where she shows gratitude for her new circumstances. A more balanced and nuanced portrayal would have helped us not just relate to her but also root for her.
🚣🏻♀️ As expected from a debut novel on such an ambitious topic, the story covers a plethora of themes, including death of loved ones, grief, displacement from home and country, immigrant challenges, xenophobia, racism, intergenerational trauma, cultural expectations, trauma, colonialism, and a lot more. While many of these sound interconnected, some feel shoved in, especially when a remark doesn’t sound like the character’s voice but the author’s voice popping in for an unrelated comment about racism.
🚣🏻♀️ Only scattered details about Viet culture. We are told many things, but experience only a few.
Bookish Nays:
🌊 The sibling relationship across the main trio begins well, but after a point, the focus remains only on Anh, even though we see Minh’s trajectory going a challenging way. The other characters don’t even get enough page space. The portrayal of the few white characters is fairly stereotypical.
🌊 Despite the extensive list of hard-hitting themes, the emotions never feel intense. Most of the plot stays stoic in its reportage, leading to a disconnect from the pain.
🌊 A lot of unnecessary foreshadowing right from the start, leading to premature information on key events.
🌊 The unnamed narrator whose identity comes out only towards the end. It is so much tougher to relate to a character when you don’t know who’s talking and the events they are narrating feel so random.
🌊 One of the first-person POVs, the ‘wandering soul’ interlude. (You’ll know what I mean if you read the book.) An interesting writing choice, but also a weird one. This adds needless magical realism to a story that doesn’t need it, and contributes nothing to the overall plot.
🌊 The random back-and-forth time jumps, all the worse on audio as they don’t always come with an accompanying timestamp. The structure feels quite messy and if you don’t pay attention to the dates, you might find yourself lost. One of the time jumps is of almost two decades: too long for such a small book.
🌊 The world-building and atmosphere is minimal. The story stays character-focussed to such an extent that we know nothing except the characters.
🌊 The story spans more than four decades, and yet the book is only 240 pages long. That should show you how rushed everything is. The nuances that take a story from good to memorable don’t get any space.
🎧 The Audiobook Experience:
The audiobook, clocking at 5 hrs 13 min, is narrated by Aoife Hinds, Ioanna Kimbook and Ainsleigh Barber. Of these, only Barber is half-Vietnamese in origin though she was born in the UK. So not exactly OwnVoices narrators. This affects the credibility of the narration, especially as there are two POVs that ought to sound Vietnamese at least in their dialogues.
Further, thanks to the frequent time jumps and shifting POVs, the audio version isn't that easy to follow, all the more as the identity of the speaker and the timestamp aren’t always mentioned. I wouldn’t really recommend the audio version.
Overall, while the book tackles a community not often seen in fiction – the Vietnamese-British, the execution leaves far to be desired. The intent of this debut novel is in the right place, but the writing style and structure could have done with some finetuning.
A majority of readers have appreciated this story much better, and it was even longlisted for two major literary prizes in 2023. Mine is thus an outlier review. Please do read others’ thoughts and take a more informed decision on this book.
This might work better with those who have not much familiarity with immigrant narratives as they might find this more illuminating.
2.5 stars, rounding down for the audio version.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
My Blog || The StoryGraph || Instagram || Facebook ||
July 14, 2023
Now shortlisted for the Waterstone’s Debut Fiction Prize.
4 /16 in my Women’s Prize 2023 rankings. My Bookstagram brief review and GR/book themed photo here:
https://instagram.com/p/CrVDwhSoXIo/
This very promising debut novel is by an editorial assistant at Jonathan Cape, who also writes for the BadFormReview where among others she has interviewed Yiyun Li and Ocean Vuong.
It is on one level a refugee tale but I think elevated in three respects – content, form and theme.
In terms of content, a story of Vietnamese Boat People settling in England seemed to be something I had not read before – refugees to the US is a more familiar story and in fact a key part of the narrative tension in the book comes from the refugees not reaching their expected and desired target of the US and instead being accepted into the UK where the immigrant dream does not really apply. And Vietnamese refugees for me neatly links a refugee story which dominated my early adult years and a more recent atrocity in the UK.
In terms of form – what is at heart a relatively simply, if movingly written tale, is built out by a number of other different (and it has to be said at times not entirely cohesive) elements.
For theme – there is an underlying exploration of grief and mourning – both in the different cultural ways they are is exhibited and experienced and in their long lasting even generational consequences.
The story opens in Vung Tham, Vietnam in November 1978 – some three years after the final Americans evacuated. A South Vietnamese family, increasingly concerned at the risk of detention by the victorious Communists, prepare to flee the county on Boats for refugee camps in Hong Kong en route they hope to the US to join the father’s brother there. The decision is for the three oldest children – Anh (the oldest but still a minor at 16) and her two brothers Minh (13) and Thanh (10) to travel first, followed by the rest of the family.
However tragedy strikes the second boat and for the rest of the main third party story we follow Anh and her brothers via a refugee camp in Hong Kong, then to a refugee camp in Hampshire, and to a council flat in Catford which they move to in 1980 and then right through to the present day.
Interleaved with the story though are three other elements
- Some more factual sections – for example about the Koh Kra Island refugee massacres (with an implied link to the fate of Anh’s family); around the Thatcher government’s Vietnamese Boat People policy (both public and private); about the eponymous American psychological warfare campaign (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operati...) – see my opening quote; about the 2019 Essex Lorry Refugee deaths
- First party sections dictated by an actual wandering soul – Anh’s younger brother Dao
- Some other first party sections in a form of authorial voice – who we over time realise is the (fictional) writer of the novel and whose sections are a mixture of: her research into areas such as the factual sections as well into grieving and trauma; and her own feelings and debates about what she should include in the story
As I said I am not entirely sure the sections all fully gel – there seems to be a slightly jarring discontinuity at times when moving to the first party sections. However thematically they certainly do – with the titular idea really holding the story together and providing a way to wrap up both the narrative part and the Dao sections in a way which I found both satisfying and moving.
My thanks to 4th Estate and William Collins for an ARC via NetGalley
4 /16 in my Women’s Prize 2023 rankings. My Bookstagram brief review and GR/book themed photo here:
https://instagram.com/p/CrVDwhSoXIo/
There’s a tradition in Vietnamese culture,’ he said. ‘They believe that you need to give your dead a proper burial in their hometown. If not, their souls are cursed to wander the earth aimlessly, as ghosts.’ He looked down at the bottom of his empty glass, his smile slowly fading from his face, a frown forming in its stead. ‘Their soldiers were dying. Every day, more dead than they could keep up with. Just like ours. They couldn’t afford to observe their burial rites. We thought we could take advantage of that. We wanted to scare those gooks, those Viet Congs, I should say. We thought if we played tapes that sounded like they’re dead comrades, they might get scared, or become demoralised.’
This very promising debut novel is by an editorial assistant at Jonathan Cape, who also writes for the BadFormReview where among others she has interviewed Yiyun Li and Ocean Vuong.
It is on one level a refugee tale but I think elevated in three respects – content, form and theme.
In terms of content, a story of Vietnamese Boat People settling in England seemed to be something I had not read before – refugees to the US is a more familiar story and in fact a key part of the narrative tension in the book comes from the refugees not reaching their expected and desired target of the US and instead being accepted into the UK where the immigrant dream does not really apply. And Vietnamese refugees for me neatly links a refugee story which dominated my early adult years and a more recent atrocity in the UK.
In terms of form – what is at heart a relatively simply, if movingly written tale, is built out by a number of other different (and it has to be said at times not entirely cohesive) elements.
For theme – there is an underlying exploration of grief and mourning – both in the different cultural ways they are is exhibited and experienced and in their long lasting even generational consequences.
The story opens in Vung Tham, Vietnam in November 1978 – some three years after the final Americans evacuated. A South Vietnamese family, increasingly concerned at the risk of detention by the victorious Communists, prepare to flee the county on Boats for refugee camps in Hong Kong en route they hope to the US to join the father’s brother there. The decision is for the three oldest children – Anh (the oldest but still a minor at 16) and her two brothers Minh (13) and Thanh (10) to travel first, followed by the rest of the family.
However tragedy strikes the second boat and for the rest of the main third party story we follow Anh and her brothers via a refugee camp in Hong Kong, then to a refugee camp in Hampshire, and to a council flat in Catford which they move to in 1980 and then right through to the present day.
Interleaved with the story though are three other elements
- Some more factual sections – for example about the Koh Kra Island refugee massacres (with an implied link to the fate of Anh’s family); around the Thatcher government’s Vietnamese Boat People policy (both public and private); about the eponymous American psychological warfare campaign (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operati...) – see my opening quote; about the 2019 Essex Lorry Refugee deaths
- First party sections dictated by an actual wandering soul – Anh’s younger brother Dao
- Some other first party sections in a form of authorial voice – who we over time realise is the (fictional) writer of the novel and whose sections are a mixture of: her research into areas such as the factual sections as well into grieving and trauma; and her own feelings and debates about what she should include in the story
As I said I am not entirely sure the sections all fully gel – there seems to be a slightly jarring discontinuity at times when moving to the first party sections. However thematically they certainly do – with the titular idea really holding the story together and providing a way to wrap up both the narrative part and the Dao sections in a way which I found both satisfying and moving.
My thanks to 4th Estate and William Collins for an ARC via NetGalley
Or perhaps I could go further. I could add twists and turns to build in tension. I could write an emotional rollercoaster. I could explore the boat more, for example. Yes, perhaps I should. Or perhaps I could point fingers. I could blame politics. I could blame war and poverty and pirates and the sea and the storm. But the more I go on, the more I realise that nothing is to blame and everything is to blame, intertwined in a medley of cause and effect, history and nature. I am trying to carve out a story between the macabre and the fairy tale, so that a glimmer of truth can appear.
November 22, 2022
I’m not sure that Cecile Pin’s decisions about the structure of her novel really worked but at the same time I found it utterly compelling and incredibly moving. At its centre are a mother and daughter, Anh and Jane. Anh is a survivor, one of the so-called “boat people” who left Vietnam in the 1970s, part of a mass exodus that resulted in thousands of deaths. Anh eventually settled in England, where years later Jane is a student struggling with the trauma handed down from her mother, desperately trying to piece together the facts of a past Anh has attempted to bury. The narrative shifts between timelines and between characters, broken up with news reports and other material linked to the experiences of the “boat people” of Anh’s generation. Alongside these runs the voice of Dao, Anh’s long-dead baby brother, now a “wandering soul” unable to find peace because he was denied the possibility of being laid to rest in Vietnam. These juxtapositions are sometimes fruitful but there were times when I found them too forced and jarring.
The majority of the book’s a fairly conventional family saga, much of its power derived from the sheer force of the history that it reveals, as well as its continued relevance in an age where migrants making perilous, sea journeys have become so commonplace that their individuality and personal realities are too often overlooked. Pin’s novel opens in November 1978, three years after the last American forces left Vietnam, 16-year-old Anh, and two of her brothers, 14-year-old Minh and ten-year-old Thanh are being sent ahead by their parents to travel by boat to a refugee camp in Hong Kong, where they are expected to reunite with their mother, father and younger siblings before joining their uncle in America. Anh and her brothers reach Hong Kong but the rest of their family are less fortunate, falling victim to the infamous pirate raid that led to the murder of men and children and the repeated gang rapes of Vietnamese migrant women on the island of Koh Kra. Anh and her brothers eventually gain entry to Britain, despite the racist policies of the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Pin then follows Anh over a number of years as she and her brothers try to carve out a life for themselves in an alien, unwelcoming land.
Pin’s prose is polished and lucid although it’s sometimes more practical than lyrical, rooted in careful research, down to the detailed descriptions of the refugee camps where people like Anh were held during the late 1970s and early 80s. From my perspective it’s not a great piece but it is an extremely promising first novel. There’s a sense of something deeply-felt driving Pin’s portrayal of Anh and her family’s fate, potent enough to sweep me up and carry me along in its wake.
Thanks to Netgalley and to publisher Fourth Estate for an ARC
Rating: 3/3.5
The majority of the book’s a fairly conventional family saga, much of its power derived from the sheer force of the history that it reveals, as well as its continued relevance in an age where migrants making perilous, sea journeys have become so commonplace that their individuality and personal realities are too often overlooked. Pin’s novel opens in November 1978, three years after the last American forces left Vietnam, 16-year-old Anh, and two of her brothers, 14-year-old Minh and ten-year-old Thanh are being sent ahead by their parents to travel by boat to a refugee camp in Hong Kong, where they are expected to reunite with their mother, father and younger siblings before joining their uncle in America. Anh and her brothers reach Hong Kong but the rest of their family are less fortunate, falling victim to the infamous pirate raid that led to the murder of men and children and the repeated gang rapes of Vietnamese migrant women on the island of Koh Kra. Anh and her brothers eventually gain entry to Britain, despite the racist policies of the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Pin then follows Anh over a number of years as she and her brothers try to carve out a life for themselves in an alien, unwelcoming land.
Pin’s prose is polished and lucid although it’s sometimes more practical than lyrical, rooted in careful research, down to the detailed descriptions of the refugee camps where people like Anh were held during the late 1970s and early 80s. From my perspective it’s not a great piece but it is an extremely promising first novel. There’s a sense of something deeply-felt driving Pin’s portrayal of Anh and her family’s fate, potent enough to sweep me up and carry me along in its wake.
Thanks to Netgalley and to publisher Fourth Estate for an ARC
Rating: 3/3.5
November 15, 2025
Slow and poignant dive into a refugees' struggles.
It's not a first book about Vietnamese "boat people" that I've read and though this one follows the same heartbreaking journey of survival and adaptation it also masterfully intertwined it with family drama and loss. Representation of generational trauma is brilliant - the psychology behind it described meticulously.
It's almost poetic, on the verge of magical realism and manages to research a lot of different issues within such a short book.
Brief but saturated read about important historical events.
It's not a first book about Vietnamese "boat people" that I've read and though this one follows the same heartbreaking journey of survival and adaptation it also masterfully intertwined it with family drama and loss. Representation of generational trauma is brilliant - the psychology behind it described meticulously.
It's almost poetic, on the verge of magical realism and manages to research a lot of different issues within such a short book.
Brief but saturated read about important historical events.
April 29, 2023
A well written novel on the immigrant experience and all the human hardships and horrors that lie under the headlines of crises.
I’m trying to carve out a story between the macabre and the fairytale so that a glimmer of truth can appear
Wandering Souls is a tender novel that tells the story of a Vietnamese family being ripped apart, and the efforts in rebuilding life after these events.
The mix between non-fiction and family story works well, despite the novel feels a tad didactic at moments.
The story of Vietnamese refugees, and a family rendered asunder, is told largely chronologically by Cecile Pin.
She brings new angles to this story, for instance the Thai fishermen capturing woman refugees and raping them or selling them to brothels.
We see Hong Kong refugee camps, residing besides a port or airport, administered by the UNHCR and having 10.000 residents.
We want you to have the best life possible multiple officials say, and in general the intentions of the authorities seem good. Still the displacement and trauma are large, with a child being forced to grow up fast and only having English music as a bandage.
Tensions arise (But Ahn knew that fear was no barrier for viciousness, that it could be its vessel) but in the end a place in the UK is secured, A place they needed more than wanted.
Social mobility slowly takes form, with someone working at an accounting firm as a secretary and other brothers returning to careers after more rebellious phases: As he learned a life of pragmatism and compromise
The catharsis at the end is touching, simple but powerful in message, despite some metafictional elements involving the dead and non fiction historical documents plus the reflections of the author herself. An impressive debut!
I’m trying to carve out a story between the macabre and the fairytale so that a glimmer of truth can appear
Wandering Souls is a tender novel that tells the story of a Vietnamese family being ripped apart, and the efforts in rebuilding life after these events.
The mix between non-fiction and family story works well, despite the novel feels a tad didactic at moments.
The story of Vietnamese refugees, and a family rendered asunder, is told largely chronologically by Cecile Pin.
She brings new angles to this story, for instance the Thai fishermen capturing woman refugees and raping them or selling them to brothels.
We see Hong Kong refugee camps, residing besides a port or airport, administered by the UNHCR and having 10.000 residents.
We want you to have the best life possible multiple officials say, and in general the intentions of the authorities seem good. Still the displacement and trauma are large, with a child being forced to grow up fast and only having English music as a bandage.
Tensions arise (But Ahn knew that fear was no barrier for viciousness, that it could be its vessel) but in the end a place in the UK is secured, A place they needed more than wanted.
Social mobility slowly takes form, with someone working at an accounting firm as a secretary and other brothers returning to careers after more rebellious phases: As he learned a life of pragmatism and compromise
The catharsis at the end is touching, simple but powerful in message, despite some metafictional elements involving the dead and non fiction historical documents plus the reflections of the author herself. An impressive debut!
April 13, 2023
This is a story of family, loss, war, memories and the lasting repercussions of war. A story of searching for a new life in a new land, not out of choice but out of necessity - if you want to continue living.
This begins as the remaining troops leave Vietnam, and follows a family who is hoping to find a new home in America, hoping to live near their father’s brother who made the move many years before. First to leave are the eldest children: Anh, Minh, and Thanh. Their parents and younger siblings will follow as soon as possible. As they wait for the rest of their family to arrive, Anh takes over most of the parental duties, although she is only sixteen.
They are placed in camps where time passes, and they wait for any news of their family. When the news arrives, it is not the news they were hoping for. Their family is now just down to three.
Eventually they immigrate to the UK, where they may live, but aren’t exactly welcomed. It is hard for Anh to find work, but she wants her brothers to go to school. Minh finds friends at school, but those friends aren’t particularly interested in attending school, and Minh follows their lead. Anh finds work in a factory, which allows them to have minimal funds for food and to pay the bills, but it isn’t an easy life. She feels the weight of responsibility. She wants more, not for herself as much as for her family, and it is crushing her.
I read this without stopping, except to highlight passages often. This is an unforgettable story, beautifully written, if often heartbreaking. Of note: this is Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2023, and I can see why. I could not, did not, put this book down until I finished the last pages.
’Knowledge allows remembering, and remembering is honoring.'
Published: 21 Mar 2023
Many thanks for the ARC provided by Henry Holt & Company
May 14, 2023
This is our history!!
It’s a fiction story — but inspired from truth.
War….. > Refugee Vietnamese story….
….love, loss, tragedies & difficulties, strength, courage, resilience. death, survival, hope!
An intimate and emotional novel ….
beautiful writing structure …..
and
very sad!
It’s a fiction story — but inspired from truth.
War….. > Refugee Vietnamese story….
….love, loss, tragedies & difficulties, strength, courage, resilience. death, survival, hope!
An intimate and emotional novel ….
beautiful writing structure …..
and
very sad!
December 6, 2022
Heartbreaking and heartwarming. Ms, Pin's first novel, this work will be released in March, 2023. Based on her family history, this novel delves into the hardships of a Vietnamese sister and her two brothers who escape Vietnam after the fall of Saigon and find a permanent home in Great Britain. Struggle, loss and disappointment were rampant and it took much time to assimilate to their new home as much as possible. This work is a poignant look at these issues and important for all people to read and consider.
My thanks to the author, Cecile Pin, and the publisher, Henry Holt Publishers for my Advance Readers Edition of this memorable book. #Goodreads Giveaway
My thanks to the author, Cecile Pin, and the publisher, Henry Holt Publishers for my Advance Readers Edition of this memorable book. #Goodreads Giveaway
March 23, 2023
Quick review: I don't really have much to say about Wandering Souls. It's exactly what I expected it to be in many ways - a story about refugee diaspora and generational trauma. I liked the interspersing of real historical articles and papers scattered throughout the chapters, as though we're doing research for the main story alongside the author. It added an authenticity to the storyline. I also liked the little insights we get from An's younger brother, showing that family stay with you, follow you and protect you always.
I can see why this was nominated for the Women's Prize. It feels very personal to the author, well written and emotionally wrought. I just found that overall it was a bit quick, skimming over large portions of the timeline so that sometimes I felt a disconnect with the characters. Only experiencing the big changes in their lives sometimes meant we missed the quieter moments. I also thought the last chapter was tagged on as a bit of an afterthought, and didn't relly fit with in with the feel of the rest of the novel.
Overall, this was a emotional read but I'm not sure how long it will stay with me.
I can see why this was nominated for the Women's Prize. It feels very personal to the author, well written and emotionally wrought. I just found that overall it was a bit quick, skimming over large portions of the timeline so that sometimes I felt a disconnect with the characters. Only experiencing the big changes in their lives sometimes meant we missed the quieter moments. I also thought the last chapter was tagged on as a bit of an afterthought, and didn't relly fit with in with the feel of the rest of the novel.
Overall, this was a emotional read but I'm not sure how long it will stay with me.
April 16, 2023
WOW! Visceral
It is not every day you pick up a book and the writing is makes your chest constrict which leads you to taking many breaks in reading because you feel like you are constantly holding your breath.
Cecile Pin’s debut novel Wandering Souls opens with a Vietnamese family currently in Vietnam getting ready to take their journey to America. Their Uncle went previously and writes back to let his brother know that he is in the land of milk and honey. With Vietnam currently war torn, their only way is to try and get to America to meet up with the uncle. The family decides to send ahead the three older siblings and the remaining family members will follow.
Nothing could prepare the siblings, Anh, Thanh, and Minh as they leave from Vietnam to Hong Kong. The siblings arrive safely in Hong Kong but their parents and younger siblings did not make it. They are left orphaned with Anh as their caretaker. Being orphaned so young, in a new place and nowhere to call home, they must cleave to each other as they carve out a life for themselves.
I am truly blown away by the writing of this book. The story felt deeply personally and one that needed to be told. Wandering Soul captures what it is like to face the unknown, time an time again, to get your choice ripped from your and constantly wondering what your future holds. I cannot recommend this book enough.
It is not every day you pick up a book and the writing is makes your chest constrict which leads you to taking many breaks in reading because you feel like you are constantly holding your breath.
Cecile Pin’s debut novel Wandering Souls opens with a Vietnamese family currently in Vietnam getting ready to take their journey to America. Their Uncle went previously and writes back to let his brother know that he is in the land of milk and honey. With Vietnam currently war torn, their only way is to try and get to America to meet up with the uncle. The family decides to send ahead the three older siblings and the remaining family members will follow.
Nothing could prepare the siblings, Anh, Thanh, and Minh as they leave from Vietnam to Hong Kong. The siblings arrive safely in Hong Kong but their parents and younger siblings did not make it. They are left orphaned with Anh as their caretaker. Being orphaned so young, in a new place and nowhere to call home, they must cleave to each other as they carve out a life for themselves.
I am truly blown away by the writing of this book. The story felt deeply personally and one that needed to be told. Wandering Soul captures what it is like to face the unknown, time an time again, to get your choice ripped from your and constantly wondering what your future holds. I cannot recommend this book enough.
May 8, 2023
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023
Pin's novel does not quite work, but I admire her ambition and drive to piece together a narrative about the destiny of the so-called boat people. Set in 1978, we meet a Vietnamese family who flees their home country, but the parents and four siblings drown - only three of the children make it to England where they struggle to make a life for themselves under Thatcherism. The kids stand pars pro toto for the Vietnamese immigrant experience in the UK, and Pin employs shifting perspectives to widen the family story to a whole panorama, among the voices are a second-generation immigrant, a ghost and two soldiers involved in the Operation Wandering Soul during the Vietnam War. The author also adds in historical documents, news reports, etc. pp.
This is a story about intergenerational trauma, migration, family, and racism - it's a whole lot Pin aims to do here, and the result is too forced and ultimately lacks focus. The pacing is off (e.g. the tangent that leads to Thailand, or the fact that the most important and interesting character suddenly appears in the middle of the story), and the idea about the wandering souls could have been played out more smoothly and also with more angles.
Still, this seems to be one of the stronger entries in an overall rather weak year for the Women's Prize.
Pin's novel does not quite work, but I admire her ambition and drive to piece together a narrative about the destiny of the so-called boat people. Set in 1978, we meet a Vietnamese family who flees their home country, but the parents and four siblings drown - only three of the children make it to England where they struggle to make a life for themselves under Thatcherism. The kids stand pars pro toto for the Vietnamese immigrant experience in the UK, and Pin employs shifting perspectives to widen the family story to a whole panorama, among the voices are a second-generation immigrant, a ghost and two soldiers involved in the Operation Wandering Soul during the Vietnam War. The author also adds in historical documents, news reports, etc. pp.
This is a story about intergenerational trauma, migration, family, and racism - it's a whole lot Pin aims to do here, and the result is too forced and ultimately lacks focus. The pacing is off (e.g. the tangent that leads to Thailand, or the fact that the most important and interesting character suddenly appears in the middle of the story), and the idea about the wandering souls could have been played out more smoothly and also with more angles.
Still, this seems to be one of the stronger entries in an overall rather weak year for the Women's Prize.
June 18, 2023
This book possesses a unique strength in that it has convinced me never to take the Woman's Prize seriously again.
April 21, 2023
We tell ourselves stories in order to heal.
“Wandering Souls” é uma história comovente protagonizada pelos três membros que restam de uma família de “boat people” vietnamita. Inicia-se em 1978, após a retirada dos soldados norte-americanos e o subsequente receio de represálias em campos de reeducação comunistas, e termina nos anos 20 do século XXI, com um novo temor entre esta comunidade asiática, o de serem bodes-expiatórios da pandemia de Covid.
Entre críticas que tenho visto sobre este livro incluem-se a presença do sobrenatural, a voz intromissora da narradora a ponderar sobre o que escrever e uma componente de não-ficção com factos tão duros como aqueles ficcionados aqui, mas creio que todas essas partes fazem sentido e cumprem o seu papel.
I could add twists and turns to build in tension. I could write an emotional rollercoaster. I could explore the boat more, for example. Yes, perhaps I should. Or perhaps I could point fingers. I could blame politics. I could blame war and poverty and pirates and the sea and the storm. But the more I go on, the more I realise that nothing is to blame and everything is to blame.
Dos nove membros da família de Ahn, só três conseguem chegar ao campo de refugiados de Hong Kong, pelo que surge a primeira questão, que é das almas penadas dos mortos que não foram condignamente sepultados na sua terra natal. Cecile Pin estabelece aqui paralelos com a “Ilíada” e o enterro de Heitor e, para falar na forma díspar como se vive o luto, recorre a “O Estrangeiro” de Albert Camus.
I didn't know that my culture had fashioned the shape of my mourning; I didn't know that my grief could be improper.
Na altura em que os três irmãos sobreviventes chegam ao campo de refugiados em Inglaterra, está-se em plena administração Thatcher. Quando as Nações Unidas lhe pedem para receber 10 mil refugiados (dos cerca de 800 mil que fugiram do país entre 1975 e 1995), percebemos a renitência do governo britânico em aceitá-los graças à correspondência que entretanto ficou do domínio público e que “Wandering Souls” inclui num dos seus capítulos. Não há como não se ver a história a repetir-se, como sempre, e é inevitável que se leia esta obra à luz da crise de refugiados dos últimos anos, os “boat people” do século XXI que atravessam o Mediterrâneo para chegar à Europa. E, curiosamente, os argumentos para não os acolher são os mesmos de então, desde o cínico “se gostam tanto deles, levem um para vossa casa”, passando pelo famoso “não temos para os nossos quanto mais para os outros”, sendo a cereja no topo do bolo uma afirmação semelhante à que ouvi recentemente da boca de um político português, a da diferença cultural:
She had far less objection to refugees, such as Rhodesians, Poles and Hungarians, since they could more easily be assimilated into British society.
“Wandering Souls” não é, no entanto, uma obra moralista, cabendo à consciência do leitor interpretá-la como uma tragédia humanitária ou apenas a tragédia pessoal de uma jovem de 16 anos que teve de assumir o papel de pai e mãe para criar os dois irmãos mais novos num país distante que, no fundo, não os queria.
“Wandering Souls” é uma história comovente protagonizada pelos três membros que restam de uma família de “boat people” vietnamita. Inicia-se em 1978, após a retirada dos soldados norte-americanos e o subsequente receio de represálias em campos de reeducação comunistas, e termina nos anos 20 do século XXI, com um novo temor entre esta comunidade asiática, o de serem bodes-expiatórios da pandemia de Covid.
Entre críticas que tenho visto sobre este livro incluem-se a presença do sobrenatural, a voz intromissora da narradora a ponderar sobre o que escrever e uma componente de não-ficção com factos tão duros como aqueles ficcionados aqui, mas creio que todas essas partes fazem sentido e cumprem o seu papel.
I could add twists and turns to build in tension. I could write an emotional rollercoaster. I could explore the boat more, for example. Yes, perhaps I should. Or perhaps I could point fingers. I could blame politics. I could blame war and poverty and pirates and the sea and the storm. But the more I go on, the more I realise that nothing is to blame and everything is to blame.
Dos nove membros da família de Ahn, só três conseguem chegar ao campo de refugiados de Hong Kong, pelo que surge a primeira questão, que é das almas penadas dos mortos que não foram condignamente sepultados na sua terra natal. Cecile Pin estabelece aqui paralelos com a “Ilíada” e o enterro de Heitor e, para falar na forma díspar como se vive o luto, recorre a “O Estrangeiro” de Albert Camus.
I didn't know that my culture had fashioned the shape of my mourning; I didn't know that my grief could be improper.
Na altura em que os três irmãos sobreviventes chegam ao campo de refugiados em Inglaterra, está-se em plena administração Thatcher. Quando as Nações Unidas lhe pedem para receber 10 mil refugiados (dos cerca de 800 mil que fugiram do país entre 1975 e 1995), percebemos a renitência do governo britânico em aceitá-los graças à correspondência que entretanto ficou do domínio público e que “Wandering Souls” inclui num dos seus capítulos. Não há como não se ver a história a repetir-se, como sempre, e é inevitável que se leia esta obra à luz da crise de refugiados dos últimos anos, os “boat people” do século XXI que atravessam o Mediterrâneo para chegar à Europa. E, curiosamente, os argumentos para não os acolher são os mesmos de então, desde o cínico “se gostam tanto deles, levem um para vossa casa”, passando pelo famoso “não temos para os nossos quanto mais para os outros”, sendo a cereja no topo do bolo uma afirmação semelhante à que ouvi recentemente da boca de um político português, a da diferença cultural:
She had far less objection to refugees, such as Rhodesians, Poles and Hungarians, since they could more easily be assimilated into British society.
“Wandering Souls” não é, no entanto, uma obra moralista, cabendo à consciência do leitor interpretá-la como uma tragédia humanitária ou apenas a tragédia pessoal de uma jovem de 16 anos que teve de assumir o papel de pai e mãe para criar os dois irmãos mais novos num país distante que, no fundo, não os queria.
June 10, 2024
A really strong novel - powerful, innovative and compelling.
December 13, 2022
Wow. Just wow!! This is so moving, heartbreaking yet touching and uplifting in the end. It's an emotional rollercoaster for sure. Eye opening, raw and emotional. Have tissues. Just shows resilience after great lost and tragic times. Loved every single moment of this, that I read it in one sitting.
I won this book from a Goodreads giveaway. All of the statements above are my true opinions after fully reading this book.
I won this book from a Goodreads giveaway. All of the statements above are my true opinions after fully reading this book.
June 12, 2024
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Watching their little bodies, I wondered where grief gets lodged in such small vessels.”
- Maggie Nelson
I had absolutely no idea what this was about when I picked it up at the library- I was just intrigued by the title but I am ever so glad I did. It was so readable. I absolutely raced through this book. It was so easy to read yet beautifully written and brilliantly executed in structure. A huge achievement for sure; Especially as a debut author!
The plot starts out one night, not long after the last American troops leave Vietnam, siblings Anh, Thanh and Minh are forced to leave their village and embark on a journey in hope of a new life. At sea, they become separated from their parents and fearing the worst they find themselves travelling alone in the world.
This book truly touches your heart with beautiful metaphors; before leaving their mother hugged them…‘She wished she could hold onto them longer, that she could squeeze them so tightly a piece of their sore would enter her heart’.
I loved the shifting narrative between different time zones, what the children were going through. Furthermore, it was always explicitly clear who was narrating and what year it was. Dao’s personal perspective was on life as ghost…a wandering soul…it was all rather intriguing; “at first it was fun. But soon, I realise that lonely and tiring to be a ghost.”
There’s a tradition in the Vietnamese culture that you need to give the dead a proper burial in their hometown, otherwise their souls are cursed to wander the earth, as ghosts…this explained a lot of what Dao had been portraying in the story up until now. Dao was dead, a ghost, forever, aimlessly wandering the earth, watching over.
Will the siblings eventually get the chance to give the rest of the family the funeral they so deserve and long for? Dao didn’t need to wander any more, he needed time to rest; no longer a phantom limb…but a real ancestor.
‘They were orphans now. She didn’t know what that English word had meant until a few weeks ago. Now it branded them.’
Anh longed for guidance and an escape to start a new life away from the past…she so badly wanted her life to begin and I SO badly wanted it to begin for her, my heart ached for her little soul. She had been stripped of her childhood, the least she could have was somewhere permanent to look after her younger brothers.
Anh’s goodness spilled out in multitudes. She cared deeply for her brothers, as her mother had asked of her. But ‘She realised that she would never stop trying to protect them.’
The author even shares her own thoughts of how torn she is between what she wants to write and what she should write and the truth she is uncovering. She says “The truth is, I don’t want to write about death. I want women to live. I want children playing…but instead, I rip open wounds I never knew I had. I sit at my computer and dig through remnants of the past…”
And when they finally arrived in London after almost 2 years, Anh told herself on loop “Ma and dad would be proud… this is what they wanted for us”. Finally, flat 3b would be theirs!! Anh slowly began to feel whole again like a ‘citizen whose presence was valid and not surveyed.’
Will they find a way to build new lives? and will their love for each other be enough to keep them together? Over the years, their relationships between each other inevitably become strained…will there be a wedge placed between them forever or will they grow stronger together? Only time will tell.
This book taught me so much. Not only did it teach me about the Vietnamese refugees but it also taught me about the power of courage and unwavering hope. It broke my heart and mended it, more than once. This story has obviously been extremely well researched and beautifully written to deeply affect the reader. It is definitely a one sitting kind of book!
I can honestly say, it deeply moved me and reminded me to be grateful for not only my family, but also the privilege I have in this world despite my own personal hardships.
I would highly recommend reading. I want to warn you it does mention rape ⚠️ once but it is easily skipped out if you feel you want to read it anyway.
“We tell ourselves stories in order to live.
We tell ourselves stories in order to heal.”
“Watching their little bodies, I wondered where grief gets lodged in such small vessels.”
- Maggie Nelson
I had absolutely no idea what this was about when I picked it up at the library- I was just intrigued by the title but I am ever so glad I did. It was so readable. I absolutely raced through this book. It was so easy to read yet beautifully written and brilliantly executed in structure. A huge achievement for sure; Especially as a debut author!
The plot starts out one night, not long after the last American troops leave Vietnam, siblings Anh, Thanh and Minh are forced to leave their village and embark on a journey in hope of a new life. At sea, they become separated from their parents and fearing the worst they find themselves travelling alone in the world.
This book truly touches your heart with beautiful metaphors; before leaving their mother hugged them…‘She wished she could hold onto them longer, that she could squeeze them so tightly a piece of their sore would enter her heart’.
I loved the shifting narrative between different time zones, what the children were going through. Furthermore, it was always explicitly clear who was narrating and what year it was. Dao’s personal perspective was on life as ghost…a wandering soul…it was all rather intriguing; “at first it was fun. But soon, I realise that lonely and tiring to be a ghost.”
There’s a tradition in the Vietnamese culture that you need to give the dead a proper burial in their hometown, otherwise their souls are cursed to wander the earth, as ghosts…this explained a lot of what Dao had been portraying in the story up until now. Dao was dead, a ghost, forever, aimlessly wandering the earth, watching over.
Will the siblings eventually get the chance to give the rest of the family the funeral they so deserve and long for? Dao didn’t need to wander any more, he needed time to rest; no longer a phantom limb…but a real ancestor.
‘They were orphans now. She didn’t know what that English word had meant until a few weeks ago. Now it branded them.’
Anh longed for guidance and an escape to start a new life away from the past…she so badly wanted her life to begin and I SO badly wanted it to begin for her, my heart ached for her little soul. She had been stripped of her childhood, the least she could have was somewhere permanent to look after her younger brothers.
Anh’s goodness spilled out in multitudes. She cared deeply for her brothers, as her mother had asked of her. But ‘She realised that she would never stop trying to protect them.’
The author even shares her own thoughts of how torn she is between what she wants to write and what she should write and the truth she is uncovering. She says “The truth is, I don’t want to write about death. I want women to live. I want children playing…but instead, I rip open wounds I never knew I had. I sit at my computer and dig through remnants of the past…”
And when they finally arrived in London after almost 2 years, Anh told herself on loop “Ma and dad would be proud… this is what they wanted for us”. Finally, flat 3b would be theirs!! Anh slowly began to feel whole again like a ‘citizen whose presence was valid and not surveyed.’
Will they find a way to build new lives? and will their love for each other be enough to keep them together? Over the years, their relationships between each other inevitably become strained…will there be a wedge placed between them forever or will they grow stronger together? Only time will tell.
This book taught me so much. Not only did it teach me about the Vietnamese refugees but it also taught me about the power of courage and unwavering hope. It broke my heart and mended it, more than once. This story has obviously been extremely well researched and beautifully written to deeply affect the reader. It is definitely a one sitting kind of book!
I can honestly say, it deeply moved me and reminded me to be grateful for not only my family, but also the privilege I have in this world despite my own personal hardships.
I would highly recommend reading. I want to warn you it does mention rape ⚠️ once but it is easily skipped out if you feel you want to read it anyway.
“We tell ourselves stories in order to live.
We tell ourselves stories in order to heal.”
July 3, 2023
I thought this was a moving and very thoughtful story and I was surprised it didn’t get further (to the short list) in the 2023 Women's Prize for literature. My bookclub were also ambivalent, for the most part.
On a personal level a number of references in the book resonated strongly with me.
I am from the south coast of England, Bournemouth, and remember the arrival of Woolco at Sopley on the outskirts of town. This is the location of the camp where the leading protagonist, sixteen year old Thi Anh (and her two brothers) find themselves on arrival in Britain. The London sections features Dalston/Kingsland Road, and this is where I work. One of the Vietnamese restaurants mentioned by name (to illustrate how far acceptance of the Vietnames community/ cuisine has come) is House of Ho in Fitzrovia. This is where my bookclub used to meet in the years up to “lockdown”.
The substance of the story itself, the uncertainty and danger facing forced immigrants, clearly resonates strongly with the events being played out now in 2023. The Vietnamese “boat people” attracted headlines in the late 1970’s, though in the Uk the sense was that the distance away from home shores meant the suffering and the horrors were largely out of sight, out of mind. The main difference between the language used by Margaret Thatcher, and Suella Braverman, is that Thatcher’s words were mostly redacted and behind closed doors. The sentiments seem to have been not dissimilar.
If Wandering Souls was made available for free to the constituencies of the Uk who seem to be hostile to migrants in 2023, then it might improve the quality of the discussion that’s presently taking place.
As a work of literature I thought the book worked well.
Without being unduly complex, there was a lot going on with the structure. Ghostly Dao seemed at first to be a bit artificial, but this made total sense when Pin introduced an excerpt from 1967 with American troops on the ground in Vietnam. Operation Wandering Soul (from which the book title is derived) was a real thing; a propaganda campaign and psychological warfare initiative. Dao’s interjections reminded me of two recent Booker prize winning novels; ( The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida and Lincoln in The Bardo , both of which featured unsettled ghostly presences in an afterworld.
The sections which are the reflection of an omniscient narrator are intriguing. Who is Jane Mai Van Leung I wonder, and what is her relationship with Cecile Pin?
The book also time shifts between 1978 and 2022. For the most part the time of settlement in Hong Kong and the Uk is at the heart of the story. Thi Anh’s maturity to older age and motherhood is skimmed over very rapidly. I didn’t think this adversely affected the book which wasn’t really about one individual, I felt.
As I reflected on the book, two enduring thoughts occur to me. Firstly, how good is London? Hackney and China Town and Peckham are all areas of multi culturalism, and mostly acceptance?
My second thought concerns why the South Vietnamese were so enthusiastic about journeying to America. Cecile Pin doesn’t overload the book with images of the Vietnamese war in the 1960s/1970s, but the fact of the My Lai massacre, and William Calley, are evident. The nature of communism, re-education camps and the brutality of war on the ground would have raised a few doubts among the refugees I would have thought.
A good, thought provoking book and one to recommend.
On a personal level a number of references in the book resonated strongly with me.
I am from the south coast of England, Bournemouth, and remember the arrival of Woolco at Sopley on the outskirts of town. This is the location of the camp where the leading protagonist, sixteen year old Thi Anh (and her two brothers) find themselves on arrival in Britain. The London sections features Dalston/Kingsland Road, and this is where I work. One of the Vietnamese restaurants mentioned by name (to illustrate how far acceptance of the Vietnames community/ cuisine has come) is House of Ho in Fitzrovia. This is where my bookclub used to meet in the years up to “lockdown”.
The substance of the story itself, the uncertainty and danger facing forced immigrants, clearly resonates strongly with the events being played out now in 2023. The Vietnamese “boat people” attracted headlines in the late 1970’s, though in the Uk the sense was that the distance away from home shores meant the suffering and the horrors were largely out of sight, out of mind. The main difference between the language used by Margaret Thatcher, and Suella Braverman, is that Thatcher’s words were mostly redacted and behind closed doors. The sentiments seem to have been not dissimilar.
If Wandering Souls was made available for free to the constituencies of the Uk who seem to be hostile to migrants in 2023, then it might improve the quality of the discussion that’s presently taking place.
As a work of literature I thought the book worked well.
Without being unduly complex, there was a lot going on with the structure. Ghostly Dao seemed at first to be a bit artificial, but this made total sense when Pin introduced an excerpt from 1967 with American troops on the ground in Vietnam. Operation Wandering Soul (from which the book title is derived) was a real thing; a propaganda campaign and psychological warfare initiative. Dao’s interjections reminded me of two recent Booker prize winning novels; ( The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida and Lincoln in The Bardo , both of which featured unsettled ghostly presences in an afterworld.
The sections which are the reflection of an omniscient narrator are intriguing. Who is Jane Mai Van Leung I wonder, and what is her relationship with Cecile Pin?
The book also time shifts between 1978 and 2022. For the most part the time of settlement in Hong Kong and the Uk is at the heart of the story. Thi Anh’s maturity to older age and motherhood is skimmed over very rapidly. I didn’t think this adversely affected the book which wasn’t really about one individual, I felt.
As I reflected on the book, two enduring thoughts occur to me. Firstly, how good is London? Hackney and China Town and Peckham are all areas of multi culturalism, and mostly acceptance?
My second thought concerns why the South Vietnamese were so enthusiastic about journeying to America. Cecile Pin doesn’t overload the book with images of the Vietnamese war in the 1960s/1970s, but the fact of the My Lai massacre, and William Calley, are evident. The nature of communism, re-education camps and the brutality of war on the ground would have raised a few doubts among the refugees I would have thought.
A good, thought provoking book and one to recommend.
May 21, 2024
Ungewöhnlich erzählte Geschichte dreier aus Vietnam geflüchteter Kinder, deren Leben mit transgenerationalem Trauma und der Schuld der Überlebenden.
"Wir erzählen uns Geschichten um zu leben . Wir erzählen uns Geschichten um zu heilen."
"Wir erzählen uns Geschichten um zu leben . Wir erzählen uns Geschichten um zu heilen."
March 13, 2023
Knowledge allows remembering, and remembering is honoring. I want the dead to be revered.
Set mostly in the late 1970s and 1980s in a variety of locales, Cecile Pin’s Wandering Souls is a story about three Vietnamese siblings who take their large family’s first steps towards the American dream, only to end up orphaned, moved from one refugee camp to another, and ultimately placed in the United Kingdom where they attempt to put together the “better lives” their mother and father had dreamed for them. The tale is primarily told from the point-of-view of eldest daughter Anh as she and her brothers Minh and Thanh cope with the danger, loss, grief, uncertainty, disappointment, loneliness, and prejudice typical of the refugee experience.
This narration is interspersed with poetic lines from the spirit of their younger sibling Dao as he watches over them; snippets of what appear to be historical articles about refugees; fictionalizations of events related to the Vietnam War and immigration; and first-person reflections from a writer who is researching and trying to put together an account of her own immigrant family’s struggles. This may seem like it could be a confusing jumble of words and subplots, but Pin weaves the variety of voices together beautifully to craft a book about the simultaneous pain and triumph of moving forward and letting the ghosts of the past rest.
Wandering Souls is an impressive work that I would recommend to readers who enjoy family sagas, historical fiction, and literary prose with BIPOC main characters. Thank you to Henry Holt & Company for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
Set mostly in the late 1970s and 1980s in a variety of locales, Cecile Pin’s Wandering Souls is a story about three Vietnamese siblings who take their large family’s first steps towards the American dream, only to end up orphaned, moved from one refugee camp to another, and ultimately placed in the United Kingdom where they attempt to put together the “better lives” their mother and father had dreamed for them. The tale is primarily told from the point-of-view of eldest daughter Anh as she and her brothers Minh and Thanh cope with the danger, loss, grief, uncertainty, disappointment, loneliness, and prejudice typical of the refugee experience.
This narration is interspersed with poetic lines from the spirit of their younger sibling Dao as he watches over them; snippets of what appear to be historical articles about refugees; fictionalizations of events related to the Vietnam War and immigration; and first-person reflections from a writer who is researching and trying to put together an account of her own immigrant family’s struggles. This may seem like it could be a confusing jumble of words and subplots, but Pin weaves the variety of voices together beautifully to craft a book about the simultaneous pain and triumph of moving forward and letting the ghosts of the past rest.
Wandering Souls is an impressive work that I would recommend to readers who enjoy family sagas, historical fiction, and literary prose with BIPOC main characters. Thank you to Henry Holt & Company for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
February 2, 2023
A haunting story about the consequences of war on ordinary citizens. A Vietnamese family divides into two groups to journey to America. One group makes it but of course the psychological effects of being the survivors lend to a difficult life. Refugees face many difficulties and develop strategies to cope and perhaps succeed. This book is heartbreaking and heartwarming. You will develop empathy that you didn’t think was possible, while learning about history of the Vietnam war. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.
May 22, 2023
I SO BADLY wanted to love this one! 🥺 The story itself was interesting and compelling, but the writing left so much to be desired, and the format felt really clunky. I think the book would have been far stronger had it just focused on the main POV. Gutted because on paper, this is the exact sort of book I’d usually adore. Honestly really surprised it was considered for the Women’s Prize because the writing felt really juvenile and basic to me. That being said, the story itself kept me hooked, and it was an easy enough read. I teetered between 2 and 3 stars for this one, but in the end, the writing missed the mark. Thank you to the publisher for a gifted review copy.
June 19, 2025
Wandering Souls' title provides the thematic structure for this thought-provoking refugee tale.
This book tells the moving story of a family divided by death when they try to escape their home country of Vietnam. We follow the journey of Anh, a teenage girl and her brothers, Minh and Thanh as they try to seek better lives in the face of the terrible loss of their parents and other siblings and the place they call home.
This book examines grief, trauma and what it means to try to build a new life. I found the information slowly revealed about Vietnam and its history along with the honest, unembelished refugee experience really moving and touching. This is a brave debut written from the heart.
This honest review is given with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.
This book tells the moving story of a family divided by death when they try to escape their home country of Vietnam. We follow the journey of Anh, a teenage girl and her brothers, Minh and Thanh as they try to seek better lives in the face of the terrible loss of their parents and other siblings and the place they call home.
This book examines grief, trauma and what it means to try to build a new life. I found the information slowly revealed about Vietnam and its history along with the honest, unembelished refugee experience really moving and touching. This is a brave debut written from the heart.
This honest review is given with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.
June 13, 2023
Review to come later.
Half the book I was like damn this is harrowing but the story would have little snippets of actual news that were so brutal.
The ending was great too, I loved the ‘well now you know what refugees go through, and here’s how you’ve treat us, enjoy your pho! :)’
Half the book I was like damn this is harrowing but the story would have little snippets of actual news that were so brutal.
The ending was great too, I loved the ‘well now you know what refugees go through, and here’s how you’ve treat us, enjoy your pho! :)’
April 25, 2023
Top ‘23 favorite—so surprised how much I loved this!!! It is on the 2023 Women’s Prize Longlist 😊 and I will be shocked if it doesn’t make the shortlist🤞🏻📚. Wandering Souls begins after American soldiers have been pulled out of Vietnam and follows a large Vietnamese family fleeing their country. Our main character is a young girl Anh(16) the eldest of seven children. Her uncle now lives in America and has shared a plan with Anh’s father of how to get out of their country and to the states. When sailing on two boats that separates the family members, tragedy strikes, leaving Anh to care for her only remaining family members.. two small brothers. There is multiple timelines + perspectives; -two quite unexpected POV’s—with politics + racism, generational trauma + grief, and the covid pandemic. This family’s story of surviving and striving for a better future was so beautifully written, just exquisite—kudos to Cecile Pin for writing this lovely book. I can’t express just how much this story impacted me emotionally. And knowing it is inspired by true events broke my heart in two. 💔 Stunning. Highly recommend. 5 stars — Pub. 3/21/23
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