What drives a person to start a new life in another country?

Leaving your homeland for the opportunity to improve your life in another country is the theme of The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen.  It is a collection of short stories that showcase the inspiration and difficulties involved in making such a decision. The author was born in Vietnam and raised in America, and his expertise as an English professor at the University of Southern California is on show throughout this book.

Each short story is self-contained and, like a multi-faceted diamond, presents a fresh glimpse of life that is in some way connected to fresh beginnings.

One story which I found delightful was that of a young man named Thomas, who was raised in a Vietnamese family living in America. His parents had escaped from the communist regime in Vietnam, where his father had been wounded fighting against the government. Their marriage had been an unhappy one, arranged for them by their parents. 

As a result, Thomas’ father was pleased to change this tradition and allow his son to choose his own wife. Thomas was scarred by his upbringing, and fearful of becoming like his own father. This made him reluctant to commit to marriage and fatherhood, not wanting to repeat the family pattern instilled in him.

When Thomas did marry, he was hesitant to commit to fatherhood. This was frustrating for his wife, who felt her biological clock ticking away, and ended the marriage. After the divorce, Thomas lived a busy, but boring, life. One day his father decided to take matters into his own hands to try to bring about a reconciliation. What they found when they went to pay an unannounced visit to Thomas’ estranged wife caught them by surprise, and resulted in a happy ending.

Another short story showcases a daughter returning to Vietnam after having been raised in America. Her mother left her father when she was still quite young, and took a chance on a new life in a new country with her three young children in tow. 

Her Vietnamese family discover the house of cards that has been built to glamorise the ordinary life that the family lives in America. The father reveals the reason he named his second family of children after the children who had gone to America – it was to ensure that they would come to their homeland one day to meet their namesakes, because he was not confident that they would come to meet him. 

Poignant surprises such as this are sprinkled throughout the book, making it a delight to read and easy to return to when you need to put it aside.

The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen (published by Hachette Australia) is available now from Dymocks. Click here to learn more.