Genre Fiction
![Cecile Pin - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B0BW9RSV8N.jpg)
Wandering Souls: A Novel
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023
"A deeply humane and genre-defying work of love and uncompromising hope." ―Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous and Time Is a Mother
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, Minh, and Thanh 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 immigrate to the UK, living first in overcrowded camps and resettlement centers and then, later, in a modernizing London plagued by social inequality. Anh works in a factory to pay the bills. Minh loiters about with fellow high school dropouts. Thanh, the youngest, plays soccer with his friends after class. As they mature, each sibling reckons with survivor's guilt, unmoored by their parents' absence. And with every choice, their paths diverge further, until it's unclear if love alone can keep them together.
Told through lyrical narrative threads, historical research, voices from lost family, and notes by an unnamed narrator determined to chart these siblings' fates, Wandering Souls captures the lives of a family marked by loss yet relentless in the pursuit of a better future. With urgency and precision, it affirms that the most important stories are those we claim for ourselves, establishing Cecile Pin as a masterful new literary voice.
"A deeply humane and genre-defying work of love and uncompromising hope." ―Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous and Time Is a Mother
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, Minh, and Thanh 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 immigrate to the UK, living first in overcrowded camps and resettlement centers and then, later, in a modernizing London plagued by social inequality. Anh works in a factory to pay the bills. Minh loiters about with fellow high school dropouts. Thanh, the youngest, plays soccer with his friends after class. As they mature, each sibling reckons with survivor's guilt, unmoored by their parents' absence. And with every choice, their paths diverge further, until it's unclear if love alone can keep them together.
Told through lyrical narrative threads, historical research, voices from lost family, and notes by an unnamed narrator determined to chart these siblings' fates, Wandering Souls captures the lives of a family marked by loss yet relentless in the pursuit of a better future. With urgency and precision, it affirms that the most important stories are those we claim for ourselves, establishing Cecile Pin as a masterful new literary voice.
Editorial Reviews
British Vogue, "8 Sparkling Debut Novels to Brighten Up Your Winter"
Zibby Mag, The Most Exciting Debut Novels of 2023
Zibby Mag, Zibby's Most Anticipated Books of 2023
Goodreads, 105 of the Buzziest Debut Novels of the New Year
Tattered Cover Book Store, The Most Anticipated Debut Books of 2023
Debutiful, The Most Anticipated Debut Books of 2023
GoBookMart, "10 Best Debut Authors of March 2023"
American Booksellers Association, April 2023 Indie Next Pick
"Wandering Souls is more than a story of sacrifice and familial duty. The author has greater ambitions, first signaled in the intricate story structure she builds. . . . What emerges is something special―a polyvocal novel, an essay on inherited trauma and a quiet metafiction about telling stories we don't own."
―Eric Nguyen, New York Times Book Review
"Wandering Souls is immersive, creative and deeply emotional."
―Good Morning America
"The glimmering tale―told through a host of perspectives, including Anh's and later her daughter's―illustrates the importance of telling one's own story."
―TIME
"Pin movingly explores how their lives are shaped―and warped―by larger historical forces, and then how these lost souls struggle to move through denial and into some tentative form of acceptance."
―Los Angeles Times
"Pin's prose is quietly powerful, her voice assured, her love for this fictional family apparent on every page."
―Star Tribune
"A debut in name only, Wandering Souls is an astute and sure-footed excavation of family, selfhood, and loss in the shadow of colonial violence. It is also a deeply humane and genre-defying work of love and uncompromising hope through a long-overdue portrayal of Vietnamese life in the UK. A mighty achievement."
―Ocean Vuong, New York Times
Zibby Mag, The Most Exciting Debut Novels of 2023
Zibby Mag, Zibby's Most Anticipated Books of 2023
Goodreads, 105 of the Buzziest Debut Novels of the New Year
Tattered Cover Book Store, The Most Anticipated Debut Books of 2023
Debutiful, The Most Anticipated Debut Books of 2023
GoBookMart, "10 Best Debut Authors of March 2023"
American Booksellers Association, April 2023 Indie Next Pick
"Wandering Souls is more than a story of sacrifice and familial duty. The author has greater ambitions, first signaled in the intricate story structure she builds. . . . What emerges is something special―a polyvocal novel, an essay on inherited trauma and a quiet metafiction about telling stories we don't own."
―Eric Nguyen, New York Times Book Review
"Wandering Souls is immersive, creative and deeply emotional."
―Good Morning America
"The glimmering tale―told through a host of perspectives, including Anh's and later her daughter's―illustrates the importance of telling one's own story."
―TIME
"Pin movingly explores how their lives are shaped―and warped―by larger historical forces, and then how these lost souls struggle to move through denial and into some tentative form of acceptance."
―Los Angeles Times
"Pin's prose is quietly powerful, her voice assured, her love for this fictional family apparent on every page."
―Star Tribune
"A debut in name only, Wandering Souls is an astute and sure-footed excavation of family, selfhood, and loss in the shadow of colonial violence. It is also a deeply humane and genre-defying work of love and uncompromising hope through a long-overdue portrayal of Vietnamese life in the UK. A mighty achievement."
―Ocean Vuong, New York Times
Readers Top Reviews
Sue S
Poignant and melancholy tale of refugees from Vietnam and how their suffering and sadness crosses generations. Also a timely reminder of the desperation and danger still faced today by those fleeing war and conflict.
I've read a decent amount of books about families fleeing their countries to start a new and (hopefully) better life in an unfamiliar country, but Wandering Souls felt special. For one thing, I picked it up, started reading, and was more than halfway finished when I poked my head up again. A similar occurrence took place during the second half; it's a book that moves quickly that you'll want to devour. The story focuses on Anh and her two younger brothers when they escape Vietnam and embark on a whirlwind of overpacked camps, resettlement centers, and eventually London. They struggle to acclimate to a world so different from their own, all while coping with the deaths of their parents and four other siblings. The plot may sound familiar, but it was interspersed with lyrical narrative threads, voices from lost family, historical research, and notes from an unnamed narrator. I really enjoyed following these siblings over the decades, and I think it's a worthy addition to the recently announced Women's Prize longlist.
Susie | Novel Visits
Thanks to @macmillan.audio and @henryholtbooks for an advanced copies of #WanderingSouls. 𝗪𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗦𝗢𝗨𝗟𝗦 by debut author Cecile Pin was one of those books that was so much more than I’d expected. Hers is a beautifully told story of three siblings who fled Vietnam for Hong Kong after the fall of Saigon. Their parents and four younger siblings were to follow, but their boat sank, leaving 16-year old Ahn in charge of her brothers, Thanh and Minh. Strangers in a strange land, the three are eventually relocated to the UK where they struggle to build lives entirely different from those they’d long dreamt of. What made this book so special was the way it was told. Most of the time the story unfolds from Ahn’s perspective, but along the way we also hear from one of her lost siblings, and an unnamed narrator that seems to have a stake in Ahn’s life. On audio, these voices felt especially poignant, eerily real. The book shone a spotlight on the difficulties of being an immigrant, of trying to adapt to an entirely different culture, of struggling to fit into a new place where many don’t want you. I was so impressed, so haunted by 𝘞𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘴 that I already can’t wait to see what Cecile Pin does next. She’s set a high bar! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Cookie
After the Fall of Saigon, sixteen-year old Anh is tasked with traveling from Vietnam to a refugee camp in Hong Kong with her two brothers. They travel ahead of their parents and younger siblings but are devastated when they find out later that their family did not survive the journey to meet them. They eventually immigrate to the UK and are faced with continual challenges of survival and assimilation in the new country. As a child of Vietnamese immigrants, I am always in search of stories that I can tie to my experience and to my parents' experience. As I read more stories that involve the Vietnam war and Vietnamese refugees, I am reminded how many shared experiences Vietnamese refugees had, no matter where they immigrated to. On the other side of the coin, there were some different experiences for Vietnamese refugees, depending on where they landed. I enjoy learning about these stories, making connections with my own family history. The book has a lot to unpack about loss, survivor's guilt, transgenerational trauma, racism, and how we define what we call "home". Told from several points of view, we get perspectives from the immigrants, children of immigrants, soldiers, and even ancestors. I don't prefer multiple points-of-view, as I prefer to deep dive into one or two perspectives instead of splitting my attention. In this book, it all came together in the end, as Anh found peace with her family and connecting with her past. Pick up this novel for a deeply moving, heartbreaking, and intriguing historical fiction book about the struggles of Vietnamese refugees. If you have a chance to listen to the audiobook, I highly recommend it. The narrators' accents help bring the book to life. ⚠️: war, death of a loved one, racism, mention of rape and murder
