Wandering Souls

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An extraordinary, original and heartbreaking debut novel about the bonds that connect people even when separated by seas or death itself, from a thrilling new voice.
There are the goodbyes and then the fishing out of the bodies – everything in between is speculation.

One night, not long after the last American troops leave Vietnam, siblings Anh, Thanh and Minh flee their village and embark on a perilous boat journey to Hong Kong. Their parents and four younger siblings make the crossing in another vessel but as weeks go by it becomes clear that only one party has survived the voyage.

Anh, Thanh and Minh suddenly find themselves alone in the world, without family or home. They travel on, navigating refugee camps and resettlement centres until, by a twist of fate, they arrive in Thatcher’s Britain. Here they must somehow build new lives with only each other to turn to, but will that be enough in a place that doesn’t seem to want them?

In this piercing debut, the siblings’ faltering journey is deftly interwoven with the voice of their lost younger brother, Dao, following them from a place between the living and the dead, and the records of an unknown researcher intent on gathering together the strands of their story. Revelatory and inventive, Wandering Souls paints a heart-wrenching portrait of a family in unimaginable adversity while exploring the power of stories to heal generational wounds. It heralds the arrival of an essential new voice in fiction.

‘Meticulously researched and beautifully imagined’ Tash Aw, author of We, the Survivors

‘Tells one of the most important stories of our times’ Lucy Caldwell, author of These Days

‘Deeply moving and deeply generous… I cried reading it’ Yara Rodrigues Fowler, author of there are more things

‘A searing, sweeping and intimate story of such heart and scope’ Rachel Long, author of My Darling from the Lions

Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Imprint: Fourth Estate UK
Publication date: 02/03/2023