Darting between 2016 and 1969, this novel lyrically weaves together American G.I.s , Vietnamese women, and the "dust children" left behind after the Vietnam War. Such a beautiful story with complex characters!

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher of Workman Publishing, and the author Nguyen Phan Que Mai. While it is exciting to read from a local Vietnamese author, I don't exactly like the author's politics. I simply don't agree with the stance of being anti-war. Is this applied to other wars such as the WW's, the civil war, or the Haitian revolution? What does advocating for peace mean while imperialism/colonialism and the everyday violence of those systems exist? I also could have done without the subplot of the American soldier. I was excited to learn more about Amerasians as I was hoping the novel would reveal an insight into their lives, but I was disappointed to find it lacking. I'm beyond disappointed and I wish I could write more, but I'm tired.

Dust Child is a heartfelt novel about the Vietnam War and a child named Phong who was born during the war and abandoned by his mother and unbeknownst to his father who was killed during the war. The novel takes us inside his story, and the lives of the women who left their small villages to work in bars entertaining soldiers as sex workers, and who struggled to make sense of their roles and their fractured lives in Saigon.

Phong had a black father, which made his life more difficult than the average mixed race child that was born during the war. The author brings us close to his daily hardships and his quest for survival in a world that was very unwelcoming. He tries to get resettlement by the American government but as time goes on, this process becomes more difficult and out of reach for many. She also gives us deep insights into the lives of these village girls that moved to Saigon under false pretenses to work in the bars.

The story is also overlayed with the story of a returning soldier, looking for his girlfriend and the child she had. His difficulties in navigating his return are so real, as I personally met someone in Vietnam going through some of the same anguishes.

The book is long, and I know the author put her heart and soul into writing it which I appreciated but I didn’t like all the writing and feel the book was very drawn out. Some of what happens is very repetitive and the author could have given more insight into the nuance of skin tone and how that plays out in Vietnamese society even today.

This is a journey to Vietnam and it is set during and after the war and shows the socio-political situation of the country and the impact of the US involvement.

The author portrays its people and their culture and focuses on Amerasians, the result of the union of American GIs in Vietnam who left pregnant Vietnamese women and the way some of the children were abandoned suffering discrimination, and longing to find their parents.

Dust Child is a moving story that reflects the importance of working on traumas and looking back in order to make amends.
There were some touching and beautiful moments during the novel but as well through the characters, the novel reflects how devastating is war and how it affects everyone.

It was so interesting to learn a little bit about this country, I searched for words and places mentioned in the novel and it definitely makes me want to visit that country so rich in many ways.

Thank you NetGalley and Algonquin Books for this e-ARC.
Pub Date: March 14th, 2023

Dust Child by Que Mai Phan Nguyen was magnificent, if you loved The Mountains Sing, Dust Child is a wonderful follow-up. Dust Child is emotional, character-driven, and rich with historical nuance and emotion as you see how the Vietnam war impacted the lives of the Vietnamese people. Que Mai spent several years interviewing individuals and families and researching the far-reaching impact of children born out of this war. I highly recommend and I do hope that Que Mai Phan Nguyen continues to create these masterpieces.

War babies, Amerasains called Dust Children, many given up and abandoned because of the fear of what the Viet Cong would do to them and the women. Amerasians we're shunned in Vietnam, especially black and Asian children. Dust Child highlights this trauma, tragedy, and aftermath of all people involved.

You'll meet Phong an Amerasian, who endured a tough and traumatic life, and learn about his quest to get his visa and move to America.

Next is Dan an American soldier. Who visit Vietnam with his wife, Linda to heal his tormented soul. Linda learns some of Dan's bitter truth when he was a young soldier.

Lastly, we get to know Trang and Quynh of two sisters, who move from their rural village in 1969 to Sài Gòn to help pay their parent's debts. They become bar girls and their the story begins the saga of how these tragic lives come together.

Character development is robust, you'll love, hate, and then love them all.

Thank you @netgalley and @algonguinbooks for the electronic arc. #dustchild #netgalley

Thank you NetGalley for the free ARC, I loved the first book, The Mountains Sing, by this author. Again this book delivers an outstanding history of the Vietnam War from the Vietnamese people's view.

There are children of black GI's and Vietnamese called Amerasians (Dust Children) that are considered "children of the enemy" and ridiculed, living in orphanages and later adopted to help their new families leave for America on a special visa. That is Phong's story. Another story tells how poor country girls move to Saigon to become barmaids and prostitutes for American GI's and fall in love and you can imagine what happens when they get pregnant. Years later an American GI returns to treat his PTSD and find out what happened to during the war years to the people he left behind.

All I can think about is that is what happened with every war - those children that were the result of soldier and native interactions. WOW!

I am happy I read this novel as I learned a lot. However, I had a hard time connecting with the characters and it took me a long time to finish the book.

FANTASTIC!!! I could not put it down! "She hoped their dreams were taking them to a peaceful world where humans were kind to other humans, so that no one needed to live with regret and sorrow." Beautiful


In 1969 during the Vietnam War two sisters, Trang and Quynh are desperate to help there parents pay off debts. They decide to go to Sai Gon to become "bar girls" to make money. Many Vietnamese girls had to turn to prostitution to make money. Trang becomes involved in a romance with an American helicopter pilot, Dan. Once Dan returns home, he finds he suffers from sever PTSD from the war. Decades later, Dan returns to Vietnam with his wife Linda to try to heal the PTSD. Dan and Linda meet Phong who is a son of a Black American soldier and a Vietnamese woman. He was called "the dust of life", and "child of the enemy. He was continually bullied and beaten by other kids. He wants to find his father and move to America for a better life for his kids.

This story kept me on the edge of my seat. It is beautifully written. The author tells the story about orphans from the war that did not have parents and that they inherited this tragic life. But these children now adults can redefine their destinies through love, compassion, courage. May there be more compassion, more peace, more forgiveness and healing in the world. There are still Amerasians that have no parents.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. I highly recommend this book. I can see this book be the best book of 2023.

I loved The Mountains Sing. This was one of my most highly anticipated reads. It took me a while to get into it, but once I did, I was hooked. The title, Dust Child, translated to bụi đời ("life of dust" or "dusty life"), generally refers to the mixed race children born during and after the Vietnam War.

This hits extremely close to home. I have several mixed race cousins born in Vietnam during this time period. While my aunt married her GI, I know many of these babies were either products of rape, or abandoned by their fathers. While babies with white features were still known as whores’ children, it is nothing like what the children with black features felt.

Phong is one of those children, and one of the POVs we read about in this book. Dan is one of the GIs that abandoned his pregnant girlfriend, only to go home and marry his white fiancée. Trang and Quỳnh are bar girls. We eventually learn how each of these people know the other, and it’s so fascinating to watch it unravel.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.

Que Mai Phan Nguyen returns to the pre and post Vietnam War era in this exceptional story of sisters, survival, loss, identity, and trauma.

Stories of "bar girls" and American soldiers have been romanticized for a long time--the most famous being the Miss Saigon musical. The truth of these relationships were mostly anything but romantic, which Nguyen brilliantly and cleverly portrays.

The plight of Amerasian children, specifically Black Amerasian children, is central to this story. Nguyen takes several twists and turns throughout the story and highlights numerous subjects, including racism, rape, chemical warfare, and efforts of American servicemen to assuage their lingering guilt. She balances these weighty matters effectively.

Many thanks to Algonquin Books and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: Dust Child
By Author: Dr. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
Review Date: January 9, 2023
Reviewer: Hoàng Chi Trương

Thanks to the author Dr. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, publisher Algonquin Books, and Netgalley for granting me an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Full Disclosure: I'm Vietnamese American. A refugee who fled South Vietnam to the US as a teenager in 1975.

Content Warning (CW): Language and situations in Dust Child could be very triggering for diasporic Vietnamese and possibly former American GIs.

Plot Summary:

Dust Child tells three stories set in Việt Nam in two time periods, pre and post-1975 (Fall of Vietnam), and the intersections of their lives.

In 1969, two sisters, Trang and Quỳnh, left their impoverished home in the Mekong Delta for better job opportunities in Sài Gòn to support their family and pay off a family’s debt.

In 2016, a black Amerasian man, Phong, a child of a Vietnamese mother and an American GI (government issue) soldier, traveled to Sài Gòn with his family, determined to seek unification with his father.

During the same period, Dan, a former GI, and his wife Linda traveled to Việt Nam from their Seattle home, seeking closure and treating his PTSD at their friend’s and therapist’s recommendations.

Each group encountered challenges and heartaches while searching for answers and successes at high personal costs.

The sisters traveled to Sài Gòn, naive and optimistic, after learning from their visiting high school friend, Hân, about a lucrative and quick way to make money. The three took the bus to the capital as Trang and Quỳnh looked forward to paying off the family’s crippling debt while their Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) father was bedridden. They fell into a vortex of unsavory situations, entangled with dangerous liaisons, and woes ensued.

Phong and his wife, Bình, and their two children, Tài and Diễm, suffered prejudices and racism throughout their lives, but they determined to prosper, despite all odds. Phong emptied their savings to find his father in America, his ticket out of poverty, persecution, and a better future for his children. In his search, Phong stumbled upon Dan and Linda, taking them on a twisty plot of more adventures, truth, deceptions, and reckoning.

Dan didn't want to return to Việt Nam initially, but his wife convinced him to face his demons to overcome his PTSD. Once he agreed and boarded the plane, he couldn't shake the thoughts of his former Vietnamese girlfriend, Kim, whom he mistreated toward the end of his tour, Especially how he walked away from her when she told him she was pregnant with their child. Dan felt remorse for mistreating her and leaving his unborn baby and felt desperate to find them. His pursuit caused marital stress when Linda discovered his secret plan to locate Kim with the help of their tour guide, Thiên, a former ARVN Captain.

Evaluation of Dust Child:

In Dust Child, the sense of place was clear, the pace was on point and suspenseful, and the dialogues were mostly fluid. And here is a note of caution for readers, the author used Vietnamese words and expressions in their full diacritic format on almost every page without footnotes or a glossary for reference.

In addition, the overused word comrade in Dust Child triggered me as a Vietnamese refugee fleeing communism at age thirteen in 1975. Since I was born and raised during the war, I have first-hand knowledge of this word usage and its identification with political affiliation.

For example, in South Vietnam, before the Fall of Saigon, the word comrade, or đồng chí, was exclusively and categorically used for communists, việt cộng or cộng sản. The ARVN soldiers and officers would NEVER call each other comrades, yet in Dust Child, ARVNs and GIs repeatedly referred to and addressed each other this way.

I cringed and found the word jarring and alienating. Words matter. They can manifest biases and political views if the goal is to foster peacebuilding and reconciliation between former enemies of the war. I wholeheartedly agree with the author, “words can be the most dangerous traps,” when Hồng, a fellow Amerasian lady, warned Phong as he looked for his GI father against scammers.

Besides these sidebar observations, Dust Child told important stories of the war's overlooked and forgotten casualties, Dust Child, the Amerasian kids, now adults, and the enduring racism they faced daily. The in-depth research brought solid storytelling for Phong and his family, Trang and her sister, Dan and his wife, and the fundamental human needs not only for safety and survival but also "connection, love, belonging, acceptance, identity, and community." (The 7 Fundamental Human Needs: Key to SUCCESS | Kenneth MD | Dr. Kenneth Acha)

Dust Child is an essential work of historical events, their fallout, and the consequences of war. The novel is entertaining, fast-paced, compelling, and a page-turner, and it will be eye-opening to most readers outside Việt Nam.

Recommendations and Rating: I'm recommending Dust Child and rating the novel a solid and enthusiastic four-star in the historical fiction genre.

Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai combines the past and present stories of several different characters into a skilfully layered and intertwining that does much more than make for immersive, at times heartrending, and just overall excellent reading. She expertly shows off both the immediate effects and long-lingering consequences of the Vietnam war, with special attention paid to the Amerasian children of Vietnamese mothers and US soldiers who were left behind to endure lives rife with challenge. Frankly, “Dust Child” is arguably a valuable educational experience as much as it is anything else - or at least it was for this American reader, and will hopefully be so for many others just like me.

Another stunning novel by Nguyen Phan Que Mai! I loved reading about Phong's story and and his parents. I felt transported as I was reading. Thank you so much for the advanced copy!

I have been SO excited for Dust Child to be released, and so thankful to have ready an early copy. Dust Child is a multiple POV story of different characters who are affected by the Vietnam War. The story focuses a lot on the experiences of Amerasian children who are mixed race and born of Vietnamese women and US military men. As the author describes in her author's note, these mixed race people experience a lot of discrimination and challenges and so she wanted to highlight what they went through.

I love multiple POV, especially when it's so clearly written. Sometimes I get confused by other books when there are too many characters--in Dust Child, each POV is distinct and could be their own book. The way the characters come together is also satisfying for the plot, but also in raising questions on reconciliation, the legacies of militarization and war, and racial economic disparities in impossible situations.

The story also goes back and forth in time (during the Vietnam War, and up to 2019), which helps to highlight the author's goal of trying to show that the effects of the Vietnam War continue to today. Anyone who was involved with the war walked away scared, and the book shows lingering mental and physical health issues for the characters. The author has some poignant moments that call out the white savior complex, especially through Mr. Thien, and it's so satisfying that the Vietnamese characters have agency and are whole persons. (I'm done with stories that show war in such a one-sided viewpoint that only glorifies the U.S.).

The book covers a lot of topics and cw as expected: rape, violence, murder, death, PTSD, war, chemical warfare, racism, etc. Though not a light hearted read, highly recommend this book--it's an important read esp in the contemporary context of ongoing warfare.

After many years of interviewing Vietnam War veterans, children of such veterans and the women left behind, the author has blended together their stories in a powerful view of the war and the impact on participants.

The lives of Trang, the young pregnant bar girl, Phong, the "Dust Child" Amerasian son of a black soldier, and Dan, the American returning to Vietnam with his unsuspecting wife to seek out his son or daughter are inextricably intertwined and provide a multilayered view of war, family and the naivete, guilt and trauma of the soldiers who were swept into the morass of war.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60831918-dust-child

After reading The Mountains Sing, Nguyễn quickly became one of my favorite authors so I was thrilled for the opportunity to read an ARC of her second novel. I found this story to be so educational about aspects of the American War in Vietnam that we have completely erased in America. While I knew vaguely about the sex work industry that was catalyzed by American GIs' presence, it was incredibly eye-opening and difficult to read about the day-to-day lives of these Vietnamese women who were doing what they needed to survive. I also found the plight of the Amerasians left behind in Vietnam to be devastating, but so important.

I may have a biased view on this book because I am comparing it to The Mountains Sing, but I did find it to be less emotional/vulnerable. The prose was a little more straightforward and I did not see as much of the poetry/lyricism that characterized The Mountains Sing. I also found the characters harder to connect with. In particular, I was not invested in Dan's (the American GI) story and I did not think he was a sympathetic character. Part of that may be because of my own positionality as a Vietnamese person, but I just struggled to connect with him or be able to see him as a character worth rooting for.

We forget about the human cost of war at a very individual level and Nguyễn is unparalleled in being able to write that perspective. She humanizes people on both sides of the war, those directly and tangentially involved, in a way that is riveting and emotional. I highly recommend this as an educational and insightful read; Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is brilliant and continues to add much-needed depth to the conversation about the American War in Vietnam.

Que Mai has once again written a beautiful and emotional story about life in Vietnam during and after the war. She braids together the lives of characters that were deeply affected by the effects of that war. Through the stories of Phong, Trang and Dan we learn about the traumas related to Amerasian children. Through Phong’s story we learn about the prejudice faced by these children who were not only the children of the enemy but also looked different and were easily ostracized. Through Trang we learn about the sacrifices young Vietnamese women had to endure to survive poverty and support their families. Through Dan we learn about the PTSD American soldiers experienced and the trauma of leaving a child behind. Once again, Que Mai writes with beautiful prose. She shares so many proverbs that she learned as a child. The use of the Vietnamese language and particularly the diacritical marks show how important it is to respect the native language. Reading about these characters felt like I knew them personally and I grew to care about them deeply. This novel gives a complete and well-rounded picture of the continuing lasting effects of a war that divided so many.