Wandering Souls
Format: Hardback
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2nd Mar '23
£14.99
Available, normally delivered within 3-6 days.
The heartbreaking literary debut, longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2023
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION
‘A deeply humane and genre-defying work of love and uncompromising hope’ Ocean Vuong
‘Heartbreaking … a deeply affecting reckoning with history’ i-D
‘Powerful … a bold debut that breaks new ground’ Sunday Times
An extraordinary and heartbreaking debut novel about the bonds that connect people even when separated by seas or death itself.
There are the goodbyes and then the fishing out of the bodies – everything in between is speculation.
One night, not long after the last American troops leave Vietnam, siblings Anh, Thanh and Minh flee their village and embark on a perilous boat journey to Hong Kong. Their parents and four younger siblings make the crossing in another vessel but as weeks go by it becomes clear that only one party has survived the voyage.
Anh, Thanh and Minh suddenly find themselves alone in the world, without family or home. They travel on, navigating refugee camps and resettlement centres until, by a twist of fate, they arrive in Thatcher’s Britain. Here they must somehow build new lives with only each other to turn to, but will that be enough in a place that doesn’t seem to want them?
In this piercing debut, the siblings’ faltering journey is deftly interwoven with the voice of their lost younger brother, Dao, following them from a place between the living and the dead, and the records of an unknown researcher intent on gathering the strands of their story. Wandering Souls paints a heart-wrenching portrait of a family in unimaginable adversity while exploring the healing power of stories.
A highly anticipated book of 2023 in Vogue, AnOther Magazine, i-D, Independent, Evening Standard and Huffington Post
‘Will shatter your heart’ Glamour
‘A powerful story of courage, love and the unwavering hope of the human spirit’ Marie Claire
‘Meticulously researched and beautifully imagined’ Tash Aw, author of We, the Survivors
‘Tells one of the most important stories of our times’ Lucy Caldwell, author of These Days
‘Powerful … a bold debut that breaks new ground’ Sunday Times
‘An astute and sure-footed excavation of family, selfhood, and loss in the shadow of colonial violence. It is also a deeply humane and genre-defying work of love and uncompromising hope through a long-overdue portrayal of Vietnamese life in the UK. A mighty achievement’ Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth, We're Briefly Gorgeous
‘A heartbreaking novel … a deeply affecting reckoning with history’ i-D Magazine
‘Meticulously researched and beautifully imagined, Wandering Soul is a deeply affecting debut, a restless inquiry into the nature of loss, kinship and survival’ Tash Aw, author of We, the Survivors
‘Pin’s story is as relevant now as it ever was. You won’t get through this without your heart breaking’ AnOther
‘Clear-hearted and moving, Wandering Souls tells one of the most important stories of our times’ Lucy Caldwell, author of These Days
‘Deeply moving and deeply generous. Pin writes about the Vietnamese diaspora in the UK – its past and its present – with love and care. I cried’ Yara Rodrigues Fowler, author of there are more things
‘A searing, sweeping and intimate story of such heart and scope. Measured, multilayered and beautiful ’ Rachel Long, author of My Darling from the Lions
‘Historical epic Wandering Souls … [offers] a very different take on the immigrant experience’ Vogue
‘This deeply affecting novel charts one family's displacement, estrangement, and return … Wandering Souls is more than testament, more than fiction. I am full of admiration’ Jeet Thayil, author of Narcopolis
ISBN: 9780008528775
Dimensions: 222mm x 141mm x 25mm
Weight: 370g
256 pages
