Book Review: Wandering Souls

Mrs P

Jun 3

"There are the goodbyes and then the fishing out of the bodies—everything in between is speculation."

Cecile Pin ~ Wandering Souls

Synopsis

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 centres and then, later, in a modernising 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.

Review

An excellent short story, that is full of sorrow and hope.

Its length lets it down as there was much more to be said about this family, and neither section felt like it had enough time. The initial tragedy could have been more impactful, had the author spent more time on it, and the same could be said for the children's time in the camp.

The decision to include the souls of the departed family is an interesting one, but does not add much to the story and detracts from the horrors we have witnessed.

The later years were less interesting, but had more time devoted to them. It was interesting to see how the children adapted to the new country and their new lives, but it felt incomplete somehow and the ending did not quite do it justice.

That said, Wandering Souls is beautifully written and does leave you with a lot to think about.