A review by geraldinerowe
Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Utterly heartbreaking from the beginning but with plenty of (sometimes qualified) hope throughout, Wandering Souls tells the story of a family of Vietnamese "boat people", strongly influenced by the author's family's experience. At first the tale is told in a fairly standard novel style, with the occasional interruption from a ghost who's watching over the family, or for a brief pertinent history lesson. Both of these worked well, but as the story morphed into more of a (semi) fictional biography the pacing became a bit stodgy. This I can forgive, though, as the whole is an astonishing work.
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