The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse

“Nguyen astutely shows how a refugee’s migration narrative can be at once forward-oriented and tragically regressive; the idea of refuge cannot be defined by legal or political considerations but, as he explains, ‘something to be lived, something that is not yet over or that is still to come.'” —Thúy Ðinh, NPR

“An innovative account that foregrounds the creative process as it traces Nguyen’s quest to revive a missing parent and investigates his shifting identity . . . The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse is a meditation on the devastation wrought by war and its lasting generational effects. It is also a celebration of human ties. As the memoir makes clear, the abiding love of his relatives, friends, and life partner sustains Nguyen. It allows him to re-engage with an enigmatic separation, to journey to Vietnam and Thailand—for Nguyen, places both real and imagined—and to move through a tale that writes his father ‘back into his life’ and slowly proceeds to ‘let him go.'” —Ruth Panofksy, Literary Review of Canada

“The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse is is at once the story of the refugee experience, the immigrant experience, the grief experience, the outsider experience and the human experience. It is Odysseus longing for home, Penelope waiting by the shore, Telemachus setting out in search of his father. Nguyen’s writing is nothing short of masterful, the imagery stunning. He tells the story of his father’s disappearance through differing angles, interpretations and iterations, weaving each together seamlessly . . . Nguyen’s is a work of searching, of longing to see, of sight constantly obfuscated by the blurring effects of falling rain. His world is not one of dappled light, but of dappled shadows. It is a work of psychological depth and insight, the work of an artist who looks deeper and deeper as he sifts through the material of his life.”—Jennifer Robinson, The Free Press

“The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse is a significant memory work that details Nguyen’s life far from Vietnam, marked by the ghost of his father. His imagery and descriptions shift between the tenderness of what he remembers of Vietnam and also the reality of what he and his family endured after they fled, while also navigating the present and offering a historical record of a place just outside his memories.” —mónica teresa ortiz, BookPage

“Inventive . . . [Nguyen] nimbly transports readers to a blurry past and immerses them in the biographical ambiguities of life as a refugee. It’s a worthy experiment.” —Publishers Weekly

“Lyrical . . . Poignantly embodies a life marked by an unsatisfiable longing.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Gorgeous and searching, mournful and luminescent, The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse is a salve and a map. Nguyen has written a gorgeous meditation on being, remembering, and becoming: a stunning work through and through.” ––Bryan Washington, author of Family Meal

“Blazingly Brilliant.” ––Souvankham Thammavongsa, author of How to Pronounce Knife

“Guided by invention and memory, creation and fidelity, this unforgettable book puts words to what is lost and what survives, while existing, somehow, within all that cannot be salvaged by language. The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse is a work of extraordinary grace and beauty.” ––Madeleine Thien, author of Do Not Say We Have Nothing

“Dreamlike and urgent, The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse captures a family history perforated by mystery, where there is no hard boundary between the real and the remembered, the present and the past, filial devotion and writerly betrayal. Every page of this ingenious book, written with tender artistry, filled me with wonder but what lingers is the unexpected love story at its core—the tale of a mother and son, committed to holding, knowing, and enlarging one another. Nguyen is a magical, dazzling writer. This book is a marvel.” ––Kyo Maclear, author of Unearthing

“In Vinh Nguyen’s tour de force memoir, crafted with fierce emotional intelligence and heartbreaking vulnerability, the past is a parallel world where his family can be made whole again. From actual journeys, like his quixotic return to a Thai refugee camp with the aid of social media, to the poignantly fabulistic flights courtesy of fiction’s alternative maps, here is a writer forthrightly reaching for all the survival tools available to him. In this homecoming of the self, Nguyen travels through doubt and desire to arrive at the terra firma of the here and now.” ––Monique Truong, author of The Book of Salt

“Vinh Nguyen’s writing blows me away. The talent jumps out. I need this book now, yesterday. We’ve been needing this book!” —Edgar Gomez, author of High-Risk Homosexual