Seeing this book everywhere, it shot straight to the top of one of my most anticipated reads of the year. I was captivated from beginning to end and if I didn't have the responsibility of a job and being a mother, I'd have read this in one sitting.

The vivid description of the plight of Anh and her brothers was so heartbreaking and powerful. Interspersed with the voice of her brother, a wandering soul, it made for such a raw account of death, loss and yet above all, family.

This is one I'll be rushing to have in physical form so I can return to the pages and root for the three siblings to survive.

Why did Ms. Pin have to go so hard hard on this debut?!? Now, my expectations for her next book have reached the moon!
I wish I could buy this book for everyone in the world. What an incredible story and narrative skills.

Wandering Souls is a short but moving account told through different narratives of the experience of three young siblings who flee Vietnam by boat in search of a better life.
The title comes from the Vietnamese folklore belief that spirits of the dead who have not been returned home for proper burial are doomed to walk the earth in torment. This belief, as one of the narratives tells, was exploited by the U.S. in the Vietnam war.
I thought the experiences of the children in the holding camps were well written and although it shows their resilience the book also details the effects of their traumas in later life.
At times the story is a little disjointed, for instance the timeline is interspersed by some first-person chapters and it’s not immediately clear who is speaking and where they fit into the overall tale.
In all it’s an impressive debut and I look forward to reading more of this author’s work.


Many thanks to NetGalley & 4th Estate and William Collins for an ARC

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60741794-wandering-souls" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Wandering Souls" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1661865624l/60741794._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60741794-wandering-souls">Wandering Souls</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21892829.Cecile_Pin">Cecile Pin</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5244735270">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Wandering Souls is a short but moving account told through different narratives of the experience of three young siblings who flee Vietnam by boat in search of a better life.<br />The title comes from the Vietnamese folklore belief that spirits of the dead who have not been returned home for proper burial are doomed to walk the earth in torment. This belief, as one of the narratives tells, was exploited by the U.S. in the Vietnam war.<br />I thought the experiences of the children in the holding camps were well written and although it shows their resilience the book also details the effects of their traumas in later life.<br />At times the story is a little disjointed, for instance the timeline is interspersed by some first-person chapters and it’s not immediately clear who is speaking and where they fit into the overall tale.<br />In all it’s an impressive debut and I look forward to reading more of this author’s work.
Many thanks to NetGalley & 4th Estate and William Collins for an ARC

I loved this book. I almost missed out on it because I couldn't remember why I'd requested it but I'm so glad I read it. It's a short, fast read ( but don't rush it, the writing is beautiful and deserves concentration) and the storyline topical , I remember the Vietnamese boat people very well and had contact with many when I worked in east London the early eighties. I've often wondered what became of them. The story of Anh, Thanh and Minh is achingly sad and very moving. Their journey to safety was terrifying and the perils this very young family faced touched me deeply.

I liked the mix of story, traditions and factual retelling about Vietnam and recent events involving refugees.

I'm so glad they all found happiness and peace by the end. I really recommend this poignant novel. Please read it.

I read this as a preview from NetGalley.
Somehow this didn't hit the spot for me. There were moments when I was pulled in but also moments I felt were laboured. I found the characters hard to relate to and enjoy despite finding the theme really interesting. Somehow, while it wasn't awful it just wasn't brilliant either.

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 two 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); arund the Thatcher government’s Vietnamese Boat People policy (both public and private); about the eponymous American psychological warfare campaign (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wandering_Soul_(Vietnam_War)) – 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 – their 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.

"There's a tradition in Vietnamese culture...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."

This may have been a work of fiction, but it felt very, very real. A story of three young siblings - Vietnamese boat people, who flee the country with the dream of a rosy future in America. However, reality hits hard. This is a story about loss, grief, survival and hope.

There are several different narratives - each providing their own insight and adding different dimensions to the story. Overall, Wandering Souls is a very impressive debut novel..

An impressive debut. The novel follows three Vietnamese siblings and their journey as boat people to London. Well researched though I found parts of the story not quite believable - stretches believability in order to tie up loose ends.

“Resettlement was a lottery, and there were winners and losers. The United States was the Holy Grail of destinations, the Land of the Free, of Cowboys and Elvis, and most of the refugees spent their days daydreaming of a life there, of becoming businessmen and restaurant owners, of generating a lineage of doctors and engineers. Germany or Italy were the consolation prizes, countries that seemed so foreign to them and whose languages they could not speak; countries that meant grieving a whole life they had already imagined and that they had longed for, a life they had told their chil- dren about as bedtime stories and that they had dreamt of in their own beds.”

“You should write your memoir,’ they would then conclude. But living through those events had been enough; she had no desire to relive them through retelling, not after the years she’d spent shoving them to the back of her mind. “

Thanks to Netgallery for the ARC.

‘And it was quite a wonderful thing, she thought, to be alive.‘

Wandering Souls might be one of the best books I’ve read all year. Considered, intimate and deeply affecting, I cannot wait to press it into the hands of all my friends.

The novel follows Anh, Thanh and Minh fleeing Vietnam in the late 70s as children/teens and their journey to resettlement. The story is interwoven with news reporting and inner monologue of Jane as learning about this history in 2019. The range of styles and voices employed showed great skill by Pin.

In what is a story filled with trauma and sadness, I found the restraint of scale and language an impactful choice. The power of the untold stories will stick with me for a long time.

If you enjoy big historical fiction like Pachinko, you’ll love it. If you want to be immersed in sadness like A Little Life, you’ll love it. If you like novels that play with form and language like On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, you’ll love this. Equally, I don’t think you need get on with any of the above to love this book.

Pick up this book if: the thing is, I cannot think of anyone who shouldn’t read this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A story about Vietnamese Boat people could seem sad and daunting. However Cecile Pin never lets tragic circumstances get in the way of seeing the "goodness in the world....yes a lot of goodness". In her own words, her family climb "a mountain of impossible odds and impending doom" yet still find a way to build lives of connection, hope and joy. Wandering Souls is a wonderful read. Cut with news and other contemporary reports for added authenticity, it is hard not to fully immerse oneself in a compelling story of the human will to survive and thrive. Special thank you to 4th Estate and William Collins and NetGalley for a no obligation advance review copy.

Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin
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⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3.5 stars
#netgalley #wanderingsouls
Thank you to NetGalley and 4th Estate for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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In 1978, as the American military leaves Vietnam, siblings Anh, Thanh, and Minh start the dangerous journey to Hong-Kong on their own. Their parents and four younger siblings will follow at a later date. When tragedy strikes, their lives are changed forever.
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I loved following the story of Anh, Thanh and Minh, from the heartbreak that befalls them to their life in refugee camps, first in Hong-Kong and in England with all the hardship this implies, before being resettled in London.
I'm always very attracted to stories of people building a new life in a different country: it takes a lot of resilience and a lot of mental fortitude - the language and cultural differences alone, not to mention the racism and xenophobia you may face, can be so difficult to cope with and overcome even more so if you're dealing with the trauma of a forced displacement such as Anh and her brothers are in this book.
There was also a beautiful thread throughout this book about family, of course, but also about the importance of the ancestors and honoring them.
I overall really enjoyed this book, even though its narrative structure threw me a bit. We follow Anh's story which is narrated in the third person but in addition to this, there are also two other narrations in the first person. The first narrator is very obvious as their name is mentioned as an introduction to their narration. However the other narration just happens without warning, without so much as a space in between paragraphs and I found this very jarring (it could have been the way my e-ARC was formatted?) You do eventually come to understand who this second narrator is, but I felt that their POV took me out of the flow of the story, which is a bit of a shame because what a beautiful, heartbreaking story it was.
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A beautiful, beguling novel which gripped me throughout. I loved the unique vignettes, as if the narrator were breaking a fourth wall, which I think make this novel such a unique and thought-proving way to ask how it can be possible to accurately recount and share these complex and sensitive histories.

Thanks v much for letting me read & review

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.

Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin is a novel about three Vietnamese siblings who seek refuge in the UK and how they resettle.

A beautiful, touching novel about family, home and the stories we pass down to one another. This is a gorgeously written book, perfectly melding a universal human story with specific history.

Anh, Thanh and Minh are the only survivors from their family, following a perilous boat journey from Vietnam to Hong Kong. Left orphaned, the three children must learn to build a new life between refugee camps, resettlement centres and eventually their own council home in London, England. But throughout their ordeals, Anh - suddenly guardian to her two younger brothers - is left questioning whether she has made the right choices, whether she has done enough for her family to thrive and to make the ghosts of her deceased relatives proud.

I had a decent awareness of the 'Vietnamese boat people' before reading Wandering Souls, but there was still plenty more to learn in these pages about this tragic and unjust humanitarian crisis. However, Pin intersperses this with joy and delight - the siblings' first experience of snow, Anh's decorations of their first flat - to create a nuanced, all-encompassing story that feels fully true to life.