Mỹ Documents

Nguyen (New Waves) draws on the legacy of the U.S. government’s internment of Japanese Americans during WWII for this intelligent and chilling novel. After a series of explosions kills scores of people at six major airports in a coordinated terror attack, the perpetrators are revealed to have Vietnamese names. The government launches an internment program for Vietnamese people in the U.S., and the story follows the Nguyen family as they reckon with the upheaval to their lives. Ursula, an up-and-coming reporter, and Alvin, an intern at Google, receive work exemptions that save them from being sent to the camps. Their younger half-sister, Jen, declines her student exemption and joins her mother and her 15-year-old brother, Duncan, at Camp Tacoma (the four half-siblings’ Vietnamese father abandoned them years earlier). While at the camp, Jen compiles a pamphlet about abuses there, which she smuggles to the outside via an underground network. The pamphlet reaches Ursula, whose star rises after she writes articles based on it. Nguyen delivers deep character work, especially with Jen, who grapples with the relief she feels after letting go of the pressure she’d internalized to succeed at school; and Ursula, whose Faustian bargain has tragic repercussions. This poignant narrative is an emotional roller coaster. Agent: Sarah Bowlin, Aevitas Creative Management. (Apr.)