Dust Child

Description

Dust Child by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is a poignant and deeply moving historical novel that explores the long shadows cast by the Vietnam War and the enduring scars it left behind.

The story follows two sisters, Trang and Quỳnh, who leave their rural home in search of better opportunities in Sài Gòn during the war. There, they are drawn into the world of bar girls, serving American GIs in hopes of helping their family survive. In parallel, we meet Dan, a Black American veteran who returns to Vietnam decades later haunted by his wartime past and seeking answers.

At the heart of the novel is the story of Phong, a mixed-race (Amerasian) man abandoned as a child, now desperate to find his American father and escape the discrimination he faces in postwar Vietnam.