Synopses & Reviews
Aimee Phan's chilling debut collection is inspired by Operation Babylift, the evacuation of 2,000 Vietnamese orphans just weeks before the fall of Saigon. Half of the stories, told through varying viewpoints and set in Saigon in 1975, follow one such orphan's journey. The rest of the collection, set in present-day "Little Saigon" in Orange County, California, chronicles the lives of four orphans, including a model student and a gang member who preys on Vietnamese families. Passionate and beautifully written, We Should Never Meet introduces one of "the very best of the new wave of Asian American authors" (David Wong Louie).
Review
"With almost plainsong dialogue and unornamented description that takes you straight to the troubled hearts of these people . . . Phan [builds] an unsentimental, profoundly persuasive portrait of ordinary people making the best of extraordinary, almost inexpressible tragedy."--
Elle "Remarkable . . . The stories are indelible yet float past you . . . many complicated issues are brought to life here."--
San Francisco Chronicle"Phan charts [these] journeys with acuity, sensitivity, [and] wisdom."--Los Angeles Times
"Phan accomplishes what only a true artist can: she gives voice to the voiceless and makes them speak for us all. This is a thrillingly important book."--Robert Olen Butler "There is nothing more satisfying for readers than having an author take them to a place they think they know, and then showing them how very little they actually do."--Hartford Courant
Synopsis
The eight linked stories that comprise Aimee Phan's chilling debut are inspired by "Operation Babylift," the evacuation of thousands of orphans from Vietnam to America weeks before the fall of Saigon. Moving effortlessly between the war-torn homeland and Orange County's "Little Saigon," Phan chronicles the journeys of four such orphans. Passionate and beautifully written, We Should Never Meet is an utterly fresh reconsideration of the Vietnam War for a new generation and heralds the arrival of one of "the very best of the new wave of Asian-American authors" (David Wong Louie).
About the Author
Aimee Phan was born in 1977 in Orange County, California, and now teaches creative writing at Washington State University, where she is at work on a novel.