
In The Refugees Viet Thanh Nguyen gives voice to lives led between two worlds the adopted homeland & the country of birth From a young Vietnamese refugee who suffers profound culture shock when he comes to live with two gay men in San Francisco to a woman whose husband is suffering from dementia & starts to confuse her for a former lover to a girl living in Ho Chi Minh City whose older half-sister comes back from America having seemingly accomplished everything she never will the stories are a captivating testament to the dreams & hardships of immigration The second piece of fiction by a major new voice The Refugees is a beautifully written & sharply observed book about the aspirations of those who leave one country for another & the relationships & desires for self-fulfillment that define our lives