THE REFUGEES

Nguyen's stories are beautiful things full of disorientation, fear, love, and alternate experiences of home. Nguyen's gentle and expressive voice contains an authenticity of emotion along with impeccable timing and perfect pronunciation. His stories illuminate the Vietnamese experience--from fleeing the country to growing up second generation in other nations. One tale features a ghostwriter--writers at home were murdered--who is visited by her brother, a ghost, 25 years after he saved her from pirates. Another focuses on a professor with early onset dementia who begins to call his wife by another name, leading her to question his fidelity. The final story juxtaposes two half-sisters with the same name living worlds away from each other who are trying to break out of their economic and cultural straitjackets. Nguyen takes these pearls and polishes them to an even brighter shine. A.B. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2017]