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May 11, 2021 | ISBN 9780593317952 Pre-Order
May 11, 2021 | ISBN 9780593317969 Pre-Order
May 11, 2021 | 450 Minutes Pre-Order
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Available from:
May 11, 2021 | ISBN 9780593317952
May 11, 2021 | ISBN 9780593317969
May 11, 2021 | ISBN 9780593410974
450 Minutes
A stunning debut novel about an immigrant Vietnamese family who settles in New Orleans and struggles to remain connected to one another as their lives are inextricably reshaped.When Huong arrives in New Orleans with her two young sons, she is jobless, homeless, and worried about her husband, Cong, who remains in Vietnam. As she and her boys begin to settle in to life in America, she continues to send letters and tapes back to Cong, hopeful that they will be reunited and her children will grow up with a father.But with time, Huong realizes she will never see her husband again. While she copes with this loss, her sons, Tuan and Binh grow up in their absent father’s shadow, haunted by a man and a country trapped in their memory and imagination. As they push forward, the three adapt to life in America in different ways: Huong takes up with a Vietnamese car salesman who is also new in town; Tuan tries to connect with his heritage by joining a local Vietnamese gang; and Binh, now going by Ben, embraces his adopted homeland and his burgeoning sexuality. Their search for identity–as individuals and as a family–threatens to tear them apart. But then disaster strikes the city they now call home, and they must find a new way to come together and honor the ties that bind them.
ERIC NGUYEN has an MFA in creative writing from McNeese State University in Louisiana and is the editor-in-chief for diaCRITICS.org. He lives in Washington, D.C.
“A devastatingly beautiful debut novel of secrets, deceits, and survivals. An extraordinary tale of a mother and her two sons, torn apart by the storms of Vietnam, to be tested again by the hurricanes of New Orleans. The end has me weeping from joy, sorrow and hope. Eric Nguyen’s talent radiates via his urgent pose and his ability to sketch the fine line between loyalty and betrayal, between what brings us together and what breaks us apart. THINGS WE LOST TO THE WATER is a powerful, stunning, and necessary read!” — Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, author of The Mountains Sing
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