Signin to download and listen to this audiobook today. She was one of many boat people, and this aspect of the story might well be modeled after vu tran s reallife experiences where he and most of his family were refugees at pulau bidong before passage to oklahoma. Charles bock, new york times bestselling author of beautiful children, dragonfish, a novel, vu tran, 9780393352870. Dinaw mengestu, author of all our names robert, an oakland cop, still cant let go of suzy, the enigmatic vietnamese wife who left him two years ago. Each week, our editors select the one author and one book they believe to be most worthy of your attention and highlight them in our pro connect email alert. In the spring of 1980, tran, his mother, and his sevenyearold sister escaped vietnam by. Dragonfish robert, an oakland cop, still cant let go of suzy, the enigmatic vietnamese wife who left him two years ago. My first novel, dragonfish a ny times notable book and a san francisco chronicle best books of the yearis a literary crime novel that follows a white american police officers search in las vegas for his missing exwife. Times best selling author of beautiful children, dragonfish, a novel, vu tran, 9780393352870. Her husband, a local gangster called sonny nguyen, recruits suzys exhusband, robert ruen, to track her down. From seemingly out of nowhere and with little advance fanfare comes a book you must read.
Vu trans novel, dragonfish, is partly mystery, partly an immigrant story, and partly about loss and heartbreak. He teaches creative writing at the university of chicago. It is titled dragonfish and is the debut work of vu tran, who teaches creative writing to a very fortunate group of students at the university of chicago. Henry prize stories and the best american mystery stories.
The spoken word doesnt count for much in vu trans hardhitting debut novel, dragonfish. The following version of this book was used to create this study guide. Vu tran, author of dragonfish author vu tran s debut novel reflects his own experiences escaping vietnam as a child. The central conceit of vu tran s debut is refreshing. Dragonfish, vu tran s first novel, is a story of exile and loss strapped into the cockpit of a thriller.
Now shes disappeared from her new husband, sonny, a. Robert, is not the melting pot you americans like to say it is, a southeast asian michael corleone lectures the white hero of dragonfish. For those of us who have read countless books by vietnamese authors and members of the diaspora, the novel dragonfish is not just one more installment of ethnic literature or postwar fiction. Robert ruen, an oakland cop, has spent several years and a. Every description was vivid, from life in a refugee camp, to the 247 neon lights of vegas, vu tran really masterfully crafted an environment of suppression, hopelessness, and one of lost love. He is the winner of a whiting award, and his short stories have appeared in many publications, including the o.
Dragonfish is the 2015 debut novel by writer vu tran. Profounda polished dagger of a novel that will cut out your heart. Dragonfish vu tran, read by tom taylorson and nancy wu. He graduated from the university of tulsa with an ma, from the iowa writers workshop with an mfa, and from the. Written by vu tran, audiobook narrated by tom taylorson, nancy wu. The spoken word doesnt count for much in vu tran s hardhitting debut novel, dragonfish. In dragonfish, suzy writes about leaving vietnam with her daughter, and arriving on an island before finally being resettled in the united states. Dragonfish by vu tran read online in pdf full version. Vu tran reads from his debut novel dragonfish together. That said, dragonfish was very much a pageturner for me. Dragonfish by vu tran, 9780393077803, available at book depository with free delivery worldwide. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading dragonfish.
At its core, this richly satisfying work is pure noir. As vu tran s debut novel, dragonfish, opens, suzy vietnamese name, hong has disappeared from her vegas home. This antiassimilationist seam runs through the fabric of vu trans debut novel, a disjointed and uninvolving exploration of the immigrant. Vu tran s first novel, dragonfish, was a ny times notable book and a san francisco chronicle best books of the year.
A thrilling work of sophisticated suspense set amid the vietnamese unde. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. Henry and being a finalist for the vilcek prize for creative promise. Vu tran department of english language and literature. Assistant professor of practice in the arts, director of undergraduate studies in creative writing.
Robert, an oakland cop, still cant let go of suzy, the enigmatic vietnamese wife who left him two years ago. Dragonfish employs the tropes of the crime novel and the noir noveltwo genres that revolve around the endless permutations and consequences of violenceto dramatize how the. A thrilling work of sophisticated suspense set amid the vietnamese underworld in las vegas. Vu tran s dragonfish is that rare hybrid marvela literary thriller, a narrative of migration and loss that upends the conventions of any form. The expression, its a vietnamese thing is uttered more than once in dragonfish, vu tran s odd, transfixing existential thriller. In vu tran s debut novel dragonfish, released this week, the gray zones of uncertainty loom large for six characters all linked to one woman, a vietnamese refugee who, almost two decades after arriving in the u. Like his predecessors, tran sets about writing a novel of transformation and redemption that is anything but easy. Vu tran was born in saigon in 1975, five months after the city fell to the north vietnamese and five months after his father, a captain in the south vietnamese air force, was forced to flee the country.
Ruens story gives the book top crime credentials, but its suzys. Robert ruen, the firstperson narrator, is a fortyfiveyearold oakland policeman, two years divorced from his vietnamese wife, suzy, a woman who left him the day after he slugged her in the face. Tran draws the reader into an exquisitely rendered world of violence and heartbreak, loss and love that is impossible to forget. Dinaw mengestu, author of the beautiful things that heaven bears.
Vu tran s debut thriller, dragonfish, surprises in ways that readers may not initially expect. The book turns on a few weary confessional speeches, but what people write is usually much more important. Vu hoang tran born 1975 is a vietnamese american writer. As he pursues her through the sleek and seamy gambling dens of las vegas, shadowed by. Dragonfish, by vu tran, represents a new departure, a renegotiation of terms in which the past is not a place of nostalgia but one that carries all the trauma of war, and the present is not. This remarkable debut novel is a noir pageturner resonant with the lasting reverberations of lives lost and lives remade a. Vu tran was born in saigon in 1975, and grew up in tulsa, oklahoma. Get this book free when you sign up for a 30day trial. Henry prize stories, the best american mystery stories, best of fence, and other publications. Vu tran has written a thrilling and cinematic work of sophisticated suspense and haunting lyricism, set in motion by characters who can neither trust each other nor trust themselves. Vu tran was born in saigon, vietnam, and raised in oklahoma.
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