The Refugees

By: Viet Thanh Nguyen

Narrated by: Viet Thanh Nguyen

Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer was one of the most widely and highly praised novels of 2015, the winner not only of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, but also the Center for Fiction Debut Novel Prize, the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, the ALA Carnegie Medal for Fiction, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and the California Book Award for First Fiction. Nguyen's next fiction book, The Refugees, is a collection of perfectly formed stories written over a period of 20 years, exploring questions of immigration, identity, love, and family.

With the coruscating gaze that informed The Sympathizer, in The Refugees Viet Thanh Nguyen gives voice to lives led between two worlds, the adopted homeland and the country of birth. From a young Vietnamese refugee who suffers profound culture shock when he comes to live with two gay men in San Francisco, to a woman whose husband is suffering from dementia and starts to confuse her for a former lover, to a girl living in Ho Chi Minh City whose older half sister comes back from America having seemingly accomplished everything she never will, the stories are a captivating testament to the dreams and hardships of immigration.

The second piece of fiction by a major new voice in American letters, The Refugees is a beautifully written and sharply observed book about the aspirations of those who leave one country for another and the relationships and desires for self-fulfillment that define our lives.

©2017 Viet Thanh Nguyen (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Nguyen's gentle and expressive voice contains an authenticity of emotion along with impeccable timing and perfect pronunciation.” ( AudioFile)

Majestic writing

Captivating stories that grasped my attention from the beginning to the end. This is the second book that I have listened from this author and again I am impressed with his writing style.

Remarkable and unforgettable

I bought this as a Daily Deal or other sale, with no idea about the author. I don't even care for short stories but these blew me away. I couldn't stop listening. The characters were so well developed I could see them as if looking at a photo but felt as though I was in each scene, embodying the characters. They had the mark of all great fiction. Each story was rooted in some aspect of the Vietnamese American experience, so I had access to an unknown culture. And yet each spoke to the universal bitter sweetness of being human, poignant stories of dreams dashed and realized , love and loss, the wreckage of human failure. So beautifully read by the author . Couldn't recommend this more highly. In fact this is the only review I've ever written! Can't wait to read his Pulitzer Prize winning novel.

Good collection of short stories

After reading his award-winning The Sympathizer, I wanted to follow it up by looking at some more stories from Viet Thanh Nguyen. The Refugees is a collection of eight or nine stories that saw original publication in order sources. After the success of The Sympathizer, his publisher brought these works together into this collection. All the stories feature Vietnamese characters and are set either in America as immigrant tales, or in Vietnam, as is the case with the last story of the collection featuring a father who receives a visit from a daughter who has "made it big" in the states as a pediatrician. Themes such as aging, young love, regret, and deceit work strongly throughout the collection. All of the stories are excellent and help to illuminate the lives of Vietnamese immigrants.

The author narrates the collection himself, and as is often the case with such things (SEE "The Lovely Bones," as an example) the results are good, but not great. Great narration is an art in itself, and sometimes the best idea is to bring in a hired gun for the job.

Some More Engaging than Others

A beautifully written book of short stories, I enjoyed some immensely and others not so much. The first chapter was my least favorite; I’m glad I stuck it out, as some of the later chapters really engaged my interest.
As an audiobook, Chapter 1 was a bit confusing. The author narrated the stories, and it took me a while to recognize that the story’s narrator was actually female. This threw me off. The author also made a valiant effort to speak in the accents of the character speaking. In some instances it worked gorgeously; in others, not so much.
Overall, an enjoyable listen.

Sensitive

Written with a certain cultural and aesthetic sensitivity that I have not encountered in modern refugee literature. It offers a perspective that gives another perspective, sometimes of those who never left.
Some stories are more captivating than others. Some dragged a little

Read it, but don't listen to it.

The narration is too monotone. Key moments in stories shoot by since not much inflection is used.

Excellent

Intriguing stories full of touching details and memorable portrayals of Vietnamese refugees, old, young, confident, reticent, rigid amd flexible but always realistic and memorable. i loved it!

great refugee stories

A series of short stories about vietnamese refugees. Engaging story telling and varied. I liked it

An interesting combination of stories.

It was a very heartfelt combination of stories and I was surprised that I enjoyed it very much.

Excellent collection of stories

I don't normally but collections of short stories, but I bought this at the same time as I bought one of his books. I haven't listened to the book yet, but if it's as good as the stories I know I'll like it. He also narrates the book and I did enjoy the narration. If course now I always listen to an audio sample and I don't buy books if I don't like the sound of the narrator's voice.

The reason that I like this so much is that almost every story left me wanting more. Almost all the main characters could be fleshed out in novel length and I would be interested in that novel.