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Title:	Dust Child
Authors:	Nguyen Phan, Que Mai
Genre:	Fiction
Pages:	352
Year:	2023
Language:	English
Description:	Four lives, entwined forever by decisions made in a time of conflict. But what happens decades later when they unexpectedly converge once more? Trang and Quynh: sisters who leave their rural village for the bustling city of Saigon, desperate to find work to help their impoverished parents. When they take jobs as ' bar girls', paid to flirt with American GIs, they must decide whether they are willing to turn their backs on the people they used to be. Phong: one of the thousands of mixed-race children abandoned by their American fathers and Vietnamese mothers. Phong grows up surrounded by rejection, insulted as a 'Black American imperialist', and a 'child of the enemy'. But he never gives up hope of finding his parents and proving he is more than a 'bui doi': more than the 'dust of life'. Dan: A former American helicopter pilot still plagued by regrets about his actions during the Viet Nam war. Now he has returned in the hope of confronting the demons that refuse to fall silent. Set between the Viet Nam war and the present day, Dust Child is a sweeping epic of family secrets and hidden heartache, from an internationally celebrated author. [Taken from book cover, One World Books]
Categories:	Fiction, War theme, Vietnam, 2025 Titles

Reviews

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By: TAUR 049		2025-06-23 14:43:53

Excellent read. One of the very few books on any war that presents multiple perspectives. Characters felt real.

By: HAMIL 074		2025-06-23 11:40:14

This book really opened our eyes to the wider and ongoing effects of war, and the communities and lives that are affected. A great story.

By: MATAM 006		2025-06-16 11:57:32

Half our group liked this book and half didn't. Some thought it was too slow to begin with. The ones that liked this loved learning about the effects the war had on the American soldiers and the Vietnamese women, plus the children that came from their union. It was a new topic for us.

By: ROTO 010		2025-06-09 22:41:28

This was a book we all enjoyed, to be able to understand the long-lasting effects of war and how the unjust and the just try and balance out. Human civilisation is made of loving individuals against such harsh realities for survival. The end of the book did seem a bit staged by the author some of our group thought. There were strands of the story to tie together and we were unsure if Nguyen Phan's approach rang true with the novel's pace.

By: PIOPIO 001		2025-05-22 18:55:42

A very well-written informative book that covers so many intergenerational consequences of the war in Vietnam. Memorable and believable characters who all brought this story to life. We all enjoyed the book although it's confronting on many levels even though many of our group were familiar with the Vietnam story.

By: GISB 003		2025-05-07 11:28:33

Great read to start the year.

By: TAUR 023		2025-05-05 09:34:53

Appreciated by most of the group. Some didn't finish it - found the story too confronting.

By: AUCK 037		2025-03-04 12:05:05

Our group had all read this book very easily and one had found it very emotional and another not at all. The story of what happened to the Ameriasian babies from the Vietnam war was well done and many thought the returning vet and father to a child he had not followed up was very powerful. We described the book as a page turner. The reason that Dan hadn’t found out about his baby until the trip many years later was attributed to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. There was much to discuss and a good book to begin our year with.

By: KATIK 002		2025-02-26 12:01:41

Really opened our eyes to the dilemma the women had during this time. So so sad - a multitude of problems. Magnificent read. Opens your eyes to the horrors of what happened in Vietnam - Agent Orange etc. The simplicity of the girls, trying to do the right thing, and the trauma as their eyes were opened.

By: NELS 065		2024-09-23 14:50:52

Absolutely brilliant, we all enjoyed it. A subject none of us knew about.