Wandering Souls by Cecil Pin

Summary: 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, Thanh, and Minh begin a perilous 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 resettle in the UK and confront their new identities as refugees, first in overcrowded camps and resettlement centers and then, later, in a modernizing London plagued by social inequality and raging anti-immigrant sentiment. Anh works in a clothing factory to pay their bills. Minh loiters about with fellow unemployed high school dropouts. Thanh, the youngest, plays soccer with his British friends after class. As they mature, each sibling reckons with survivor’s guilt, unmoored by their parents’ absence. With every choice they make, their paths diverge further, until it’s unclear if love alone can keep them together.

Condition: Pre-owned, light wear

My Personal Review: I had trouble rating this book. I couldn’t put it down, it reads so quickly. It is written in such a simple style that it’s almost poetic. It’s a horrible story - full of sadness and loss for this refugee family. There are a few connections to results of war, current day human smuggling across borders etc that show how serious and scary these issues are and what families go through trying to find safety but I did feel like the author didn’t make these areas impactful enough. I had trouble emotionally connecting to this book even though I was sucked in to their lives so easily and knew the experience was gut-wrenching. 4/5 for me - just lacking that connection that I cannot explain. I deff looked up and plan to act on how I can help IRL and so this book does have a big impact.