Winner of the She Reads Award for Best Historical Fiction'LYRICAL AND DEEPLY EMPATHETIC.' Gabrielle Zevin, author of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow'DAZZLING.' Elif Shafak, author of The Island of Missing TreesFour lives, entwined forever by decisions made in a time of conflict. But what happens decades later when they unexpectedly converge once more?It is 1969, and sisters Trang and Quynh watch helplessly as their rural village is transformed by the outbreak of war. Desperate to help their impoverished parents, they head to the thronging city of Sai Gon and join the women working as 'bar girls', paid to flirt with American GIs. What follows will test their sisterhood in ways they could never have foreseen.Decades later Viet Nam is thriving, successfully emerging out of the shadow of war. But Dan and Phong, two men whose lives were transformed by their experiences on different sides of the conflict, are struggling to leave the past behind.What happens when these four characters unexpectedly come together once more, and each is forced to grapple with the legacy of decisions made in the past - decisions that continue to reverberate through all their lives?Dust Child is their unforgettable story.'Nguy?n Phan Qu? Mai is one of the most unique storytellers of our time.' Natalie Jenner, internationally bestselling-author of The Jane Austen SocietyA Best Book of the Year according to Book Riot, the Buzz Magazines, Cosmopolitan and Reader's DigestA Most Anticipated Title according to Sydney Morning Herald, Salon, NB Magazine and SheReads

Autorentext

Dr Nguyn Phan Qu Mai is an award-winning Vietnamese poet and novelist. She is the author of eleven books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Her books in Vietnamese have received the 2010 Poetry of the Year Award from the Hanoi Writers Association, the Capital's Literature & Arts Award, and First Prize in the Poetry Competition celebrating 1,000 Years of Hanoi. Her debut novel and first book in English, The Mountains Sing, is an International Bestseller, runner-up in the 2021 Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Winner of the 2020 BookBrowse Best Debut Award, Winner of the Blogger's Book Prize 2021, Winner of the 2021 International Book Awards, Winner of the 2021 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award, and Winner of the 2020 Lannan Literary Award Fellowship for "a work of exceptional quality" and for "contribution to peace and reconciliation". For more information, visit: nguyenphanquemai.com

Klappentext

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 Vi?t Nam war. Now he has returned in the hope of confronting the demons that refuse to fall silent.

Set between the Vi?t Nam war and the present day, Dust Child is a sweeping epic of family secrets and hidden heartache, from an internationally celebrated author.

Zusammenfassung
A powerful, captivating tale of family secrets and hidden heartache from an internationally acclaimed author