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1969: Two sisters leave rural Vietnam and are soon caught up in the war in Saigon
Dust Child
What you need to know before your trail
In 1969, two sisters from rural Việt Nam leave their parents’ home and travel to the bustling city of Sài Gòn. Soon their lives are swept up in the unstoppable flames of a war that is blazing through their country. They begin working as ‘bar girls’ in one of the drinking dens frequented by American GIs, forced to accept that survival now might mean compromising the values they once treasured.
Decades later, two men wander through the streets and marketplaces of a very different Sài Gòn: modern, forward-looking, healing. Phong – the son of a Black American soldier and a Vietnamese woman – embarks on a search to find his parents and a way out of Việt Nam, while Dan, a war veteran, hopes that retracing the steps of his youth will ease the PTSD that has plagued him for decades.
Travel Guide
Vietnam, Saigon and Ho Chi Minh City
The author mentions that she grew up in Southern Vietnam and that during the late seventies and eighties she got a glimpse at the discrimination faced by Americans born from the wartime unions between American men and Vietnamese women.
Over the years, she kept thining about ehe Amerasians and hoped that life had treated them kindly. She then read a story that moved her very deeply and that it led to her eventually writing this novel.
The story was of a man called Jerry Quinn who travelled back to Ho Chi Minh City with photos of his wife and child as he wanted to find them. They had been separated by war 41 years earlier.
Booktrailer Review
TheBookTrail’s bookreview of Dust Child by Nguyễn Phan Que Mai
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Dust Child
Destination/location: Vietnam, Saigon Author/guide: Nguyễn Phan Quế Ma Departure Time: 1969
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