'Dazzling. Sharply drawn and hauntingly beautiful.' Elif Shafak, author of The Island of Missing Trees
Four lives, entwined forever by decisions made in a time of conflict. But what happens decades later when they unexpectedly converge once more?
'Dust Child is satisfying, lyrical, and deeply empathetic. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is a born storyteller.' Gabrielle Zevin, author of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
Trang and Quynh: sisters who leave their rural village for the bustling city of Saigon, desperate to find work to help their impoverished parents. When they take jobs as ‘ bar girls’, paid to flirt with American GIs, they must decide whether they are willing to turn their backs on the people they used to be.
Phong: one of the thousands of mixed-race children abandoned by their American fathers and Vietnamese mothers. Phong grows up surrounded by rejection, insulted as a ‘Black American imperialist’, and a ‘child of the enemy’. But he never gives up hope of finding his parents and proving he is more than a ‘bui doi’: more than the ‘dust of life’.
Dan: A former American helicopter pilot still plagued by regrets about his actions during the Việt Nam war. Now he has returned in the hope of confronting the demons that refuse to fall silent.
Set between the Việt Nam war and the present day, Dust Child is a sweeping epic of family secrets and hidden heartache, from an internationally celebrated author.
'Nguy��n Phan Quế Mai is one of the most unique storytellers of our time.' Natalie Jenner, internationally bestselling-author of The Jane Austen Society
A Best Book of the Year according to Book Riot, the BuzzMagazines, Cosmopolitan and Reader's Digest
A Most Anticipated Title according to Sydney Morning Herald, Salon, NB Magazine and SheReads
Genre: Literary Fiction
Four lives, entwined forever by decisions made in a time of conflict. But what happens decades later when they unexpectedly converge once more?
'Dust Child is satisfying, lyrical, and deeply empathetic. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is a born storyteller.' Gabrielle Zevin, author of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
Trang and Quynh: sisters who leave their rural village for the bustling city of Saigon, desperate to find work to help their impoverished parents. When they take jobs as ‘ bar girls’, paid to flirt with American GIs, they must decide whether they are willing to turn their backs on the people they used to be.
Phong: one of the thousands of mixed-race children abandoned by their American fathers and Vietnamese mothers. Phong grows up surrounded by rejection, insulted as a ‘Black American imperialist’, and a ‘child of the enemy’. But he never gives up hope of finding his parents and proving he is more than a ‘bui doi’: more than the ‘dust of life’.
Dan: A former American helicopter pilot still plagued by regrets about his actions during the Việt Nam war. Now he has returned in the hope of confronting the demons that refuse to fall silent.
Set between the Việt Nam war and the present day, Dust Child is a sweeping epic of family secrets and hidden heartache, from an internationally celebrated author.
'Nguy��n Phan Quế Mai is one of the most unique storytellers of our time.' Natalie Jenner, internationally bestselling-author of The Jane Austen Society
A Best Book of the Year according to Book Riot, the BuzzMagazines, Cosmopolitan and Reader's Digest
A Most Anticipated Title according to Sydney Morning Herald, Salon, NB Magazine and SheReads
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is one of the most unique storytellers of our time. She creates plots which are Dickensian in their breadth and mastery, while bravely probing the complex emotional challenges of living in a modern world full of disruption and displacement. In Dust Child, Quế Mai displays the same tenderness and compassion for her characters, hard-earned understanding of human trauma, and poetically evocative language that made her debut novel The Mountains Sing an international bestseller beloved around the world." - Natalie Jenner
"The sons and daughters of American soldiers and their Vietnamese girlfriends who exhibited African American and European features were shunned by Vietnam's monoethnic society during and after the war. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai writes of some of these 'dust children' with complexity and heart. This is a powerful and moving story, brilliantly told." - Robert Mason
"Once again, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai has written a beautiful novel that shines a light on the history of Vietnam. With a poet's grace, she writes of the legacy of war across time and place and the stories that bind us. Dust Child is simply stunning." - Eric Nguyen
"Dazzling. Sharply drawn and hauntingly beautiful." - Elif Shafak
"The sons and daughters of American soldiers and their Vietnamese girlfriends who exhibited African American and European features were shunned by Vietnam's monoethnic society during and after the war. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai writes of some of these 'dust children' with complexity and heart. This is a powerful and moving story, brilliantly told." - Robert Mason
"Once again, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai has written a beautiful novel that shines a light on the history of Vietnam. With a poet's grace, she writes of the legacy of war across time and place and the stories that bind us. Dust Child is simply stunning." - Eric Nguyen
"Dazzling. Sharply drawn and hauntingly beautiful." - Elif Shafak
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