Wandering Souls Book Review: A Heart-Wrenching Tale of Lost Dreams and Found Hope! Must-Read or Heartbreak? Discover the Truth
“Wandering Souls,” Cecile Pin’s debut novel, embodies memory, imagination, and empathy. Pin, of Vietnamese and French heritage, has acknowledged that her mother’s story partly inspired the novel.
Daily, newspapers carry stories of refugees from around the world fleeing conflict, persecution, and instability, often in overcrowded boats and vehicles, tragically resulting in the loss of lives. Survivors often face hostile government policies.
While this may seem like a contemporary issue, migration has been a part of human history for ages, with two predominant narratives: one about the curse of wandering and the other about the necessity of leaving one’s birthplace to create something new.
Writers who have experienced displacement often navigate between these narratives, drawing from memory, imagination, and empathy to tell stories that resonate with others. “Wandering Souls” by Cecile Pin is a prime example of such storytelling.
Pin, based in London with Vietnamese and French roots, has woven her family’s history into the novel, particularly her mother’s experience of losing her parents and five siblings while immigrating to France. “Wandering Souls” represents her quest to understand her identity and family history.
The novel centers on Vietnamese boat people who fled their homeland after the Vietnam War. The opening line immediately grabs the reader’s attention, setting the tone for the narrative: “There are the goodbyes and then the fishing out of the bodies – everything in between is speculation.”
Anh, a teenage girl, serves as the novel’s linchpin. She learns that she and her two younger brothers will leave their home near Ho Chi Minh City for a perilous boat journey to Hong Kong, where they will stay in a refugee camp while waiting for their parents and other siblings to join them before continuing to America.
However, tragedy strikes and the rest of Anh’s family perishes during the journey, leaving her responsible for her surviving brothers. She becomes their guiding star, striving to appear strong for them.
“Wandering Souls” takes readers through the following years as Anh and her brothers adapt to life in the Hong Kong refugee camp and eventually find resettlement in the United Kingdom.
The novel delves into their journey of reinventing their lives, including finding employment, assimilating into a new culture, and forming new relationships. It also explores their challenges, such as encountering their first snowfall, dealing with casual racism, and confronting their past.
The novel’s narrative could be more linear but artfully constructed, with sections from the perspective of a younger brother’s wandering spirit who had drowned during the initial crossing. These passages offer poignant and reflective moments.
Additionally, the novel sheds light on the actions of American soldiers during the Vietnam War and the reception of refugees in their adopted countries.
As a presiding spirit is introduced later in the story, the novel explores manifestations of grief and how it differs across cultures. It navigates these themes with a mix of pain, inquiry, and at times, wryness.
With dignity and grace, “Wandering Souls” follows these wandering souls on their journey toward reconciliation with their past, adding to Joan Didion’s idea that we tell ourselves stories to live by emphasizing that storytelling can also heal.
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