What a powerful story, inspired by the author’s family, and was just chosen as the Women’s Prize longlist this year.

I listened to the audiobook format and absolutely loved the narration and would highly recommend.

*many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the gifted copy

This story was incredibly heartbreaking and heartening. Mixing nonfiction, historical elements paired well with the fictional (but based in actual refugee/immigrant) tellings did well in giving the reader a well-rounded understanding of the character’s experience. I found the first two parts of the book to be devastating, but well-written. The third part was a bit more difficult and while it didn’t take away from the success of the story, I didn’t feel like it added much. On top of that, I didn’t find the third narrator (the ghost of the protagonist’s brother) to be successful. While I understand the purpose behind it - the brother *is* the wandering soul - I felt like we needed more excerpts from him for it to be effective for the overall story.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the advanced listen.

I'm Vietnamese American. You're probably very aware of this fact if you read any of my reviews. I'd say my favorite genre as of late is own voices, specifically Asian stories set in the wider diaspora. There is a large influx of East Asian literature, but more recently I've come to find more Southeast Asian and South Asian literature. (Side note to men on dating apps: South Asian ≠ Southeast Asian. The amount of Southeast Asian men that do not know what they are will astound you. Or maybe it won't.)

I've read this before. I felt rather ambivalent about it. A friend recently read it and gave it 4.5 stars, so I thought I would try again, this time on audio. Poor choice on my part. There are seemingly 3 narrators. I had to look up to see if any of them were actually Vietnamese, because the pronunciations are just awful. It ruined an already mediocre experience. This isn't even an accent issue. The prevailing accents are Northern, Central and Southern. Most Vietnamese Americans have a Southern Vietnamese accent. I don't. This isn't even that. If I hadn't previously read this book on paperback, I wouldn't have even known the protagonist's name is Anh. The narrator kept calling her Ann. I am pained.

I suppose I could review the book itself. Anh and her brothers resettle in the UK, even though their initial plan is the US, because she lies and doesn't mention an uncle living in the US. That would've expedited their application. They tragically lose their parents and siblings before this point. While I easily followed Anh and her brothers' lives, the more confusing POV is from one of the dead siblings. I'm not sure what it added to the story.

While the US hosts a very large Vietnamese population, the UK's is much smaller. I won't get into Margaret Thatcher's politics. I'm not even fond of speaking on the US' quite similar views. Obviously, growing up in the US, I have met countless Vietnamese Americans. I have only encountered one Vietnamese British family. Even my ears perked up when I first heard their accents at a wedding.

In any case, it's interesting to see how the Vietnamese community struggles and thrives abroad. While we share similar experiences, there will always be something that is inherently different. For a Vietnamese Australian book, I recommend All That's Left Unsaid. Does anyone have Vietnamese recommendations from different diasporas? I'd love to read about similar experiences.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.

This heart wrenching story of three Vietnamese children, forced to flee their home in the aftermath of the war, as they follow the well-trod journey of resettlement. This book is crafted with creative, diverse story-telling techniques, with the author tying in tidbits and pieces of first-person reflection, narration from the point of view of ghostly family members, historical facts and sidebars, and a narrative on an American strategy of psychological warfare.

This gripping story has the feeling of a personal memoir with all the associated triumphs and struggles. The plot is secondary to the emotions and experiences of the characters, primarily Anh, the eldest sister. I was brought to the verge of tears a few times reading her story and her baby brother's posthumous reflections. This is the story of what it means to be a refugee and specifically, this refugee, from this place/to this place, from this war, from this time. In that way, the story feels very personal but expansive.

The audiobook was wonderful, I highly recommend it. The author has a British accent and speaks the Viet words in a Viet accent, so (in my opinion) it's immersive in the feeling of straddling two worlds and identities.

This was a beautifully layered story that told the story of Vietnam refugees in a visceral way. I loved the way it was weaved with cultural information about death and the discussions about family and obligation. It was such a wonderful novel.

This is a beautifully written novel about three siblings navigating their life after leaving Vietnam.

It ties in the story of the three siblings as they grow older. The oldest daughter takes on the role as the guardian for her younger siblings.

There were parts that brought me to tears wishing I could hug each one of these characters.

my first book on the women's prize 2023 longlist, and i'm happy to say i really enjoyed it. cecile pin's debut novel 'wandering souls' looks at the life of 3 vietnamese siblings who, after the vietnam war, are left orphaned, leaving 16-year-old anh the caretaker of her two younger brothers. the three settle in the uk, and have to come to terms with their new identities as orphans, as refugees, and as workers in a booming london society. told through narrative threads that weave together, as well as historical research and voices from family members lost, 'wandering souls' really is a novel of war and loss and search for a better future.

while my description might seem vague, this is one of those books where it's better the less you know. so much of the beauty of the book is through how it's told, and the picture these different narrative devices paint of a family coming of age in a difficult time. highly recommend!

"Knowledge allows remembering, and remembering is honoring."

I'm not one to stick closely to the daily news cycle. That being said, it has been hard to watch politicians fight over banning books and censoring history, especially as they do nothing to stop school shootings like the one that occurred this week. With so much hate and deceit in the world, it can be hard to remain hopeful. Still, our optimism must remain. How do we keep this positive outlook? I don't pretend to have the answers, but I do see plenty of things that help me maintain an enthusiastic mindset. In the book world, more and more diverse authors are telling their stories, introducing readers to a wider array of realities. Even more promising, it seems like these tales are capturing a broader audience than ever before. Add Cecile Pin's debut novel Wandering Souls into that category. She's written a searing portrait of a family's history through war, immigration, and assimilation. It is the kind of story that demands to be read. One that is powerful and poignant in its perspective.

In the years following the Vietnam War, it is clear to Anh's parents that the promises of a bright future rest outside of their home country. Anh's uncle has taken his family to live the American dream, a dream that Anh's father plans to pursue too. This is a huge, life-changing moment for the family. Anh's parents know that the journey to a better life will be as perilous as it will be rewarding. They send Anh and the other eldest children on the trip to Hong Kong first. They promise that they and the younger siblings will not be far behind. The full family will be reunited in China before embarking on the next leg of their trip. This promise, though, will not be kept. Anh's parents and younger siblings are killed during their travels, leaving the fragmented remains of the family left to journey ahead alone.

Over the next several decades, Anh and her surviving siblings are left to pick up the pieces of their father's shattered dream. They land first in a resettlement camp, a place where they interact with other immigrants, struggling to hold on to their identities. When they finally are placed back into the real world they land not in America, but in the UK. Their new home doesn't offer the bright future they were promised. Instead, the siblings face anti-immigrant hate and systemic social inequality. Instead of coming together, to form their new life, each sibling slowly diverges from the other. Racked with survivor's guilt and a desire to pave their own path, they'll have to reckon with the ghosts of their past to find their way to a brighter future.

I can't give enough praise to this book. I was entranced by the story told in Wandering Souls, and I'm grateful to the publisher for providing me with a copy of it. Cecile Pin has written a novel that deals with the challenges of memory. How do we keep the memory of loved ones alive? How do we honor our past while moving toward the future? These are the things Pin grapples with. The characters in the book give us an insight into the realities of being an immigrant to a foreign country. Pin intersperses the third-person narrative of her main character Anh with the first-person voice of Anh's deceased younger brother. This ghostly voice ties everything that happens in Anh's life to her past, never fully allowing her to escape it. Also included in the narrative are snippets of factual articles from the time, grounding this fiction in the reality of the world it depicts. These elements come together to tell a visceral story of family, love, and loss. Wandering Souls is the best, most important book that I've read this month, and will no doubt be among my favorite reads of the year.

This was a tough novel about Vietnamese refugees relocating to the UK. I appreciated the author's insight into the refugee experience and it was well-written.

Wandering Souls is a heartrending tale of a family separated by war and seeking connection and home in the face of displacement. Siblings Anh, Minh, and Thanh leave Vietnam for Hong Kong (with the promise of travel to their uncle in the United States), with the rest of their family-- parents and other siblings-- soon to follow. However, a wave of tragedy and misfortune eventually leaves oldest sister Anh in charge of her brothers in their new home in the United Kingdom. Interspersed throughout the narrative of Anh and her siblings are the observations of the ghosts (the "wandering souls") of their family members, who seek rest in their ancestral home.

Cecile Pin's narrative is gripping and raw, chronicling the experience of diaspora through the eyes of one family and supplemented through historical research. This was a powerful read!

🌙'There are the goodbyes and then the fishing out of the bodies – everything in between is speculation'
Cecile Pin's Wandering Souls

Wandering Souls is a beautifully and inventively written book about Vietnam refugees from 1979 and onward into today. This is not a simple account of one family but a careful mix of fiction and non-fiction told through different perspectives. I found the construction easy to follow in the excellent audiobook because they had a cast of three actors taking on different perspectives.

I remember being a very young girl and seeing news of Vietnamese refugees coming to Canada and other countries around the world but I didn't know the details of what they faced en route. Wandering Souls has little insert chapters that tell you some awful historical accounts like the Koh Kra Island massacre. Wandering Souls also tells the story of teenage Anh and her two brothers who set out in a separate boat and planned on reuniting with the rest of their family when both of their boats reached Hong Kong. Sadly, the three teens are the only survivors and must make a new life in London with sixteen-year-old Anh raising Thanh, and Minh.

I listened to this book while sewing and found myself many times just sitting and crying. It isn't all heartbreaking - Anh and her brothers have so much resiliency and strength to face years in camps and then living in London with people who don't want them there. But even with that resiliency, life takes its toll and Pin explores how that trauma affects future generations.

I really recommend this book and hope that it can move up to the shortlist of The Woman's Prize. Thank you to @netgalley and @macmillan.audio for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"Wandering Souls" by Cecile Pin, publishing date Marcy 21, 2023 (happy publishing day) in USA.
Audiobook is narrated by Ainsleigh Barber, Aoife Hinds, and Ioanna Kimbook. (Yes, it has multiple POV - a lot more than three.)
An advanced copy of this audiobook was provided courtesy of Macmillan Audio and NetGalley. Thank you.

I wished to listen to this book because it was long listed for Women's Prize for Fiction 2023. I have never read this author (I believe this is her debut) and I was curious. The book starts at Fall of Saigon in 1978, when the main protagonist Anh's family decide to free Vietnam for Hong Kong. The plan was to 16-year-old girl Anh to leave with her two younger brothers, Thanh and Minh, while their parents and three other siblings to follow. Except they perish, thus Anh instantly becomes a parent-figure for her brothers. They settle in England, and starts an entirely new way of life, learning new culture, weather, politics, language, everything, along the way. A lot of interesting things happen in an immigrant's life, and it was intriguing to see opinions from someone settled in England vs. USA. Also interesting to learn Vietnamese culture, including the concept of the title "Wandering Souls," for one's soul cannot rest if he were to die far from home. Given a short length of the book (which I admire greatly), it might be a lot more interesting if it focused on one, or all three surviving siblings, similar to Brothers Karamazov but of course much shorter and with different culture/genders. Instead, the author included many different views and timelines, including soldiers, other siblings, and an offspring, along with political commentary. I felt it was muddled and confusing at times, and overall unfocused. I fell in danger of a wandering soul myself. I understand this is a debut novel. I hope her future novels would be sharper.

Also, I think the narration was a miss here, given the book talks about the main character with Vietnamese accent but there is no narrators with accent, also all female voices. High voice used for a younger child was annoying rather than apt. I don't think this was a case of a bad narration - rather a miscast in my opinion.

Wandering Souls is gorgeous and lyrical and it will break your heart. This is a story about refugees, their harrowing journey, and their efforts to maintain hope and build a home outside their homeland. I was pulling so hard for the siblings in the face of obstacles, trauma, loneliness, and vulnerability. Beyond that, though, it is also a tale of reckoning with generational trauma, and navigating family history of tragedy and displacement toward a place of peace for oneself and even for the ones who were lost and those who come after.

Ms. Pin makes some bold and creative stylistic and structural choices. I appreciated the shifts in perspective and narration. It took me off guard and forced me to pay attention to what was being said and to ponder what was behind the changes in point of view. The lyrical storytelling hit a poignant chord and kept me anxious to see where - and with whom - we were going next and what would happen. I do wish one of the narrators toward the end could have been a little more fleshed out. Ultimately, though, the various layers of narration accumulated to form realizations about whose stories these are, why they matter, and why telling them is essential for the self, the family, the community.

I see why this is longlisted for the 2023 Women's Prize! It's a total package - stellar writing, creative storytelling, compelling characters, thought-provoking topics, and important ideas.

I listened to an advanced copy of the audiobook through Netgalley and the publisher Macmillan Audio and Henry Holt & Company. It was a multicast narration, very well done. I'm grateful for the opportunity to provide an honest review.

The American troops have left Vietnam and a family is desperate to leave and resettle somewhere new. Anh and her two younger brothers are the first to start the perilous journey to Hong Kong to wait for the rest of their family to arrive. Tragedy strikes and Anh finds herself the caretaker of her brothers.

This story is based on the “Vietnamese boat people.” Something I knew nothing about. Families fleeing their homes to refugee camps in Hong Kong while they hope to be accepted into another country.
This book is told in many different styles and has quite a few POVs. They were a bit confusing. It took about half the book for me to finally understand the connection between them. Though I did love how they all came together in the end. It might have been easier to follow if I had read it instead of listened. But regardless, I was hooked. I was fully invested and was crying by the end.

What you’ll find in this book:
-historical fiction
-grief/loss
-generational trauma
-full circle ending

This is a relatively short book, 5+ hour listen. I think it’s worth it and learning more about this little known history.

Spice level: None
Audiobook: 🎧🎧🎧🎧/5
Pub Date: Mar 21

Thanks to @netgalley and @macmillanaudio for the audio ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Cecile Pin packed quite a punch in this short novel. After the fall of Saigon 3 sibling travel separately from their parents and younger siblings to get to Hong Kong. They end up in UK without their parents through a chain of events. Unprocessed trauma, making a place for one's self and hope are all themes that are very strong in this one. Loved the narration by three narrators. I can see why this has been longlisted for women's prize in fiction. Thank you so much to Macmillan Audio for the ALC of this one!

I was attracted by the title of this book first, but now that I have read the story, the title is just perfect for this beautiful, sad, distressing story always tinged with hope. I was swept along emotionally with the characters but it always felt genuine. The historical asides - like Margaret Thatcher's released memos 30 years later revealing her real thoughts about welcoming Vietnamese refugees - or the 39 Vietnamese migrants who died being shipped across the channel in 2019 - really helped anchor the story. This book packs quite a wallop in a small space. I will be thinking about this story for awhile.
Thanks to Netgalley for providing my audio copy of this book.

Wow, what a story! I really enjoyed how this author structured this story. It's a great blend of past, present, and future timelines of this one family's journey. As we read along we are revealed how these three children's traumatic journey to London affects their adult life. Though it was a short book it gave you everything you needed.

Thank you for granting this arc for review.

WANDERING SOULS
Cecile Pin

-Longlisted for the Women’s Prize For Fiction 2023-

This book was not on my radar and I probably wouldn’t have read it if it had not been longlisted for the Women’s Prize For Fiction this year. That is the beauty of awards like these as they bring attention to worthy titles you may have missed.

WANDERING SOULS stars Anh a young girl from a large family. Anh’s family has decided to make the hard decision to leave their home with hopes of making it to America and starting a different life with family already successfully in America.

Anh will be with her two younger brothers, Thanh and Minh. And her parents along with Anh’s younger siblings will travel separately. Anh, Thanh, and Minh reluctantly set out on their journey missing the rest of their family along the way.

We follow Anh, Thanh, and Minh on their harrowing journey. They do not know at this time that the rest of their family will never arrive. And Anh will become both father and mother to her two younger siblings. A role filled with losses and grief, at times-overwhelming amounts of love.

This is Anh’s story and a story of survival when you don’t feel like surviving, about something being bigger than the self, and its a story of being lost and never found.

WANDERING SOULS feels like a collaborative project in novel form. It is not a traditional novel. I listened to this on audiobook, and it felt multi-dimensional. The writing is fantastic. The characters are the strong suit. They don’t always do what you want them to do and some of their choices have lasting consequences that are reflected throughout the novel.

There is a unique ribbon that flows through the book that turns this very straightforward story into one that bends and curves genre lines. I appreciated this aspect, which I won’t spoil for you, and thought it lent a bit of lightness in an otherwise very dark and bleak novel.

I liked this one and can see why it has been longlisted. Looking at the other titles on the list I’m curious how this one will rank. I hope to read most of the titles on the longlist. Look for reviews for the rest of March and the entirety of April.

The shortlist will be announced on April 26, 2023. Are you going to read any of the titles?

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy! Good Luck to Cecile Pin!

WANDERING SOULS comes out on March 21st, 2023.

WANDERING SOULS…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is a beuatiful story of young siblings immigrating to the U.K. from Vietnam. The book follows them as they adapt to life in London, the survivor's guilt they feel, and how people from our past (who we love) stay with us.

Pin's structure/narration choices were beautiful. This was such a well narrated audiobook too!

Oh my gosh, this book was fantastic. I am so grateful to have received both audiobook access from Macmillan Audio and NetGalley and a wonderfully bound physical ARC from Henry Holt and Cecile Pin before it's set to publish on March 21, 2023.

Very few books can make me cry, and the way Wandering Souls evoked an emotional reaction in me was brutally beautiful and heartbreaking. I learn so much from the books I read, and this has offset my rabbit hole into researching the senseless brutalities of the Vietnam War, a war so horrid that it broke apart family units and saw the displacement of so many.

Cecile Pin's Wandering Souls walks readers through the growth of one family's journey leaving communist Vietnam in search of a better life in America. When some mishaps occur, Anh, Minh, and Thanh find themselves being transported to London, where Anh becomes a "parent" and caretaker overnight after losing half of her family. They are placed in a refugee camp and then eventually in Council housing to help get them on their feet after such a culture shock, but ultimately are left feeling more lost than ever before.

Anh faces the harsh realities of adulthood, making ends meet through lifeless jobs and scraping coins to help give her brothers the life they deserve, and Minh and Thanh experience the bullying and hate that comes with racist mainlanders. We grow up with this broken trio and watch them grow and break down through every chapter of their transplanted life. We, the readers, get excerpts from critical historical events to glimpse better how the UK handled and mishandled the topic of rehoming refugees. We also get little blurbs from the gone but not forgotten members of Anh's family, as ghosts, or rather "Wandering Souls," left behind in the ether, following their living family members around through life helps to create perspective into these crucial relationships.