-The Unwanted (Hardcover).

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       "Kien Nguyen's The Unwanted is a haunting memoir of both nightmarish agony and redemptive self-discovery destined to become a literary classic. Written by a Vietnamese immigrant storyteller whose mesmerizing prose is reminiscent of Frank McCourt and Alfred Kazin, The Unwanted is a cultural experience you won't easily forget."— Douglas Brinkley, Director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies and Professor of History at the University of New Orleans, author of Rosa Parks (Penguin Lives), FDR and the Creation of the U.N. (with Townsend Hoopes), and the American Heritage History of the United States.

       "Compellingly told, Kien Nguyen's story of an Amerasian boy and his mother unfolds dramatically page by page. It not only touches the heart but contributes to our understanding of the history of postwar Vietnam."— Lan Cau, author of Monkey Bridge and Everything You Need to Know About Asian American History (with Himilce Novas).

       The "unwanted" in the title refers to the American children who resulted from U.S. involvement in Vietnam from the late 1950s to 1975. Kien has blond hair and blue eyes and is only eight when Saigon falls to the communists in the spring of 1975. He is at the American embassy with his mother and other family members waiting for the last helicopters to leave Vietnam. However, one helicopter crashes and the other flees, leaving hundreds of Vietnamese stranded in hostile territory. His mother, once a wealthy banker, is left with nothing after her house is "given" to a Communist Party member; and Kien and his brother are considered half-breeds by the conquering North Vietnamese and by their own neighbors and some relatives. Together with his mother, younger brother, grandparents, and a former servant, Kien learns to survive by trying to grow up early. When an attempted escape turns tragic, Kien becomes a prisoner in Vietnam. This is a moving memoir by someone who was forced out of childhood by war and its many disruptions.— Marlene Chamberlain.

       "He writes with a voice of innocence that takes us into the heart and spirit of one person's undeserved and tragic childhood."—USA TODAY.

-The Unwanted (Paperback).

      "A remarkable tale of survival at all costs."—Julie K. L. Dam, People.

      "Compelling....A haunting story."—Laura Ciolkowski, Washington Post Book World.

      "Nguyen writes with a voice of innocence that takes us into the heart and spirit of one person's undeserved and tragic childhood."—Carol Memmott, USA Today.

     "A gripping literary memoir....Young Kien's pleasure in the smell of candy on his grandfather's breath, the texture of soursop fruit, and the blood red of a girl's blouse persuades us that he has the will and acumen to survive....So much happens that is beyond the imagination of American readers untested by war on the home front that it is best to suspend disbelief and simply listen to Kien Nguyen's bold and eloquent voice."—Cheri Register, Ruminator Review.

     "Heart-rending....A harrowing account of what life was like for Kien Nguyen and his family in those nightmare years."—Merle Rubin, Los Angeles Times.

      "Vivid and compelling.... A gripping, emotionally raw story....Kien's story deserves a place with the best memoirs of immigration and exile."—Richard C. Kagan, Minneapolis Star Tribune.

-The Tapestries (Hardcover).

      "THE TAPESTRIES is set in a Vietnam unknown to most Americans. That this strange and beautiful lost world has been brought to life for us by a storyteller of such force as Kien Nguyen is cause for celebration. A poignant and deeply satisfying novel."—Sigrid Nunez, author of A Feather on the Breath of God and For Rouenna.

      Nguyen follows his acclaimed memoir, The Unwanted (2001), with a daringly complex and vividly imagined debut novel about a boy who fights to reclaim his family's royal legacy in Vietnam at the turn of the century. Seven-year-old Dan Nguyen is married in childhood to a 27-year-old family servant named Ven, who hides and protects the boy when rivals come to execute Dan's parents. But Dan's strange union with Ven is disrupted when Ven contacts malaria and she is forced to sell him into slavery to the mayor's family. Dan's stint as a slave proves fateful, though, when he becomes the personal servant of the beautiful Tai May and the two fall in love. In spite of Dan's station, Tai May chooses him over a wealthy young suitor. When the spurned suitor spies on Dan and finds out about his marriage to Ven, Dan is forced to flee the family. The dizzying intricacy of the plotting occasionally becomes a bit overwhelming as Nguyen tracks Ven's tragic fate and Dan's search for Tai May while attempting to piece together a treasure map that has been laid out as an interlocking series of body tattoos. But the beauty of Nguyen's stately, ornate prose-perfectly suited to the rigidly formal customs of Vietnamese royalty-serves him well as the complex plot unfolds. The scope of the tale and its grace and power make this a formidable first novel. (Oct 02.)
Forecast: Nguyen's difficult early life in Vietnam as the son of a wealthy Vietnamese woman and an American GI was the subject of his memoir, The Unwanted. With The Tapestries, he proves he is at least as talented a writer of fiction as nonfiction. Booksellers might recommend him particularly to fans of Anchee Min, another writer who has made crossover from memoir to fiction.—Publishers Weekly