Dust Child (UK)

Dust Child Paperback – 14 Mar. 2023 by Nguyen Phan Que Mai (Author), UK.

A Library Journal 'Best Book of December 2022'

A Most Anticipated Title according to Sydney Morning Herald, Salon, NB Magazine and SheReads 

'Dazzling. Sharply drawn and hauntingly beautiful.' Elif Shafak, Women's Prize-shortlisted author of The Island of Missing Trees

In 1969, two sisters from rural Việt Nam leave their parents' home and travel to the bustling city of Sài Gòn. Soon their lives are swept up in the unstoppable flames of a war that is blazing through their country. They begin working as 'bar girls' in one of the drinking dens frequented by American GIs, forced to accept that survival now might mean compromising the values they once treasured. 

Decades later, two men wander through the streets and marketplaces of a very different Sài Gòn: modern, forward-looking, healing. Phong – the son of a Black American soldier and a Vietnamese woman – embarks on a search to find his parents and a way out of Việt Nam, while Dan, a war veteran, hopes that retracing the steps of his youth will ease the PTSD that has plagued him for decades.

When the lives of these unforgettable characters converge, each is forced to reckon with the explosive events of history that still ripple through their lives. Now they must work out what it takes to move forward in this richly poetic saga from Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai at her very best.

Product details

• Format Paperback | 352 pages
• Dimensions 153 x 234 x 33mm | 432g
• Publication date 14 Mar 2023
• Publisher Oneworld Publications
• Publication City/Country London, United Kingdom
• Language English
• Edition Statement TPB
• ISBN10 0861546121
• ISBN13 9780861546121