Wandering Souls
Published on 2. March 2023
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-0-00-852877-5 (ISBN)
Description
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION
'A mighty achievement' OCEAN VUONG
'Beautiful, brilliant' R. F. KUANG
'Dazzling'
OBSERVER
'Will shatter your heart'
GLAMOUR
'Powerful'
SUNDAY TIMES
An extraordinary story of the journey of one young family through love, loss and unwavering hope.
There are the goodbyes and then the fishing out of the bodies - everything in between is speculation.
One night, not long after the last American troops leave Vietnam, siblings Anh, Thanh and Minh flee their village and embark on a perilous journey in hope of a new life. Separated from their parents and fearing the worst they find themselves travelling alone in the world without a home to return to. After a twist of fate lands them in Thatcher's Britain, they must somehow build new lives there. Will the love they have for each other be enough to keep them together?
Wandering Souls is a stunning, life-affirming testament to the healing power of stories.
A Time and Guardian book of the year
Shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize 2023
'Poignant and lyrical' DAVID NICHOLLS
'A powerful story of courage, love and unwavering hope'
MARIE CLAIRE
'Beautiful... I loved every word' PHILIPPA PERRY
'A deeply affecting reckoning with history'
i-D
'Tells one of the most important stories of our times' LUCY CALDWELL
'Special ... Reading it is like watching a writer at work'
NEW YORK TIMES
'A mighty achievement' OCEAN VUONG
'Beautiful, brilliant' R. F. KUANG
'Dazzling'
OBSERVER
'Will shatter your heart'
GLAMOUR
'Powerful'
SUNDAY TIMES
An extraordinary story of the journey of one young family through love, loss and unwavering hope.
There are the goodbyes and then the fishing out of the bodies - everything in between is speculation.
One night, not long after the last American troops leave Vietnam, siblings Anh, Thanh and Minh flee their village and embark on a perilous journey in hope of a new life. Separated from their parents and fearing the worst they find themselves travelling alone in the world without a home to return to. After a twist of fate lands them in Thatcher's Britain, they must somehow build new lives there. Will the love they have for each other be enough to keep them together?
Wandering Souls is a stunning, life-affirming testament to the healing power of stories.
A Time and Guardian book of the year
Shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize 2023
'Poignant and lyrical' DAVID NICHOLLS
'A powerful story of courage, love and unwavering hope'
MARIE CLAIRE
'Beautiful... I loved every word' PHILIPPA PERRY
'A deeply affecting reckoning with history'
i-D
'Tells one of the most important stories of our times' LUCY CALDWELL
'Special ... Reading it is like watching a writer at work'
NEW YORK TIMES
Reviews / Votes
'I raced through it. Beautiful, brilliant, unflinching' R. F. KUANG'This lean, affecting book packs a mighty punch and heralds a dazzling new talent' OBSERVER
'Powerful ... a bold debut that breaks new ground' SUNDAY TIMES
'A deeply humane and genre-defying work of love and uncompromising hope through a long-overdue portrayal of Vietnamese life in the UK' OCEAN VUONG
'A heartbreaking novel ... a deeply affecting reckoning with history' i-D MAGAZINE
'A poignant saga with its grieving, beating heart firmly in the right place, and heralds the arrival of an ambitious and promising new talent' GUARDIAN
'A powerful story of courage, love and unwavering hope'
MARIE CLAIRE
'Something special - a polyvocal novel, an essay on inherited trauma and a quiet metafiction about telling stories we don't own' NEW YORK TIMES
'Meticulously researched and beautifully imagined ... deeply affecting' TASH AW
'As relevant now as it ever was. You won't get through this without your heart breaking' AnOther
'Deeply moving and deeply generous ... I cried reading it' YARA RODRIGUES FOWLER
'A searing, sweeping and intimate story of such heart and scope' RACHEL LONG
'Historical epic Wandering Souls ... [offers] a very different take on the immigrant experience' VOGUE
'An enormously evocative portrait of dispossession' FINANCIAL TIMES
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 141 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
370 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-00-852877-5 (9780008528775)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Cecile Pin grew up in Paris and New York City and now lives in London. She writes for Bad Form Review, was longlisted for its Young Writer's prize and is a London Writers Awards 2021 winner. Her debut novel, Wandering Souls was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize 2023. In 2025, she was selected for Forbes' 30 Under 30 Europe List.