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Dust Child
- Narrated by: Quyen Ngo
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
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Publisher's summary
From the internationally bestselling author of The Mountains Sing, a suspenseful and moving saga about family secrets, hidden trauma, and the overriding power of forgiveness, set during the war and in present-day Việt Nam.
In 1969, sisters Trang and Quỳnh, desperate to help their parents pay off debts, leave their rural village and become “bar girls” in Sài Gòn, drinking, flirting (and more) with American GIs in return for money. As the war moves closer to the city, the once-innocent Trang gets swept up in an irresistible romance with a young and charming American helicopter pilot. Decades later, an American veteran, Dan, returns to Việt Nam with his wife, Linda, hoping to find a way to heal from his PTSD and, unbeknownst to her, reckon with secrets from his past.
At the same time, Phong—the son of a Black American soldier and a Vietnamese woman—embarks on a search to find both his parents and a way out of Việt Nam. Abandoned in front of an orphanage, Phong grew up being called “the dust of life,” “Black American imperialist,” and “child of the enemy,” and he dreams of a better life for himself and his family in the U.S.
Past and present converge as these characters come together to confront decisions made during a time of war—decisions that force them to look deep within and find common ground across race, generation, culture, and language. Suspenseful, poetic, and perfect for fans of Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko or Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing, Dust Child tells an unforgettable and immersive story of how those who inherited tragedy can redefine their destinies through love, hard-earned wisdom, compassion, courage, and joy.
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The glimmering Huguenot cross she so innocently wears leads her deep into the shadows. When Gabriella Madison arrives in the French village of Castelnau in 1961 to continue her university studies, she doesn’t anticipate being drawn into the secretive world behind the Algerian war for independence from France. And the further she delves into the war efforts, the more her faith is challenged. The people who surround her bring a whirlwind of transforming forces.
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Faith, Romance, Spies, and Fascinating History
- By Amazon Customer on 05-02-19
By: Elizabeth Musser
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The Ungrateful Refugee
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- Narrated by: Dina Nayeri
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
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Aged eight, Dina Nayeri fled Iran along with her mother and brother and lived in the crumbling shell of an Italian hotel-turned-refugee camp. Eventually, she was granted asylum in America. She settled in Oklahoma, then made her way to Princeton University. In this book, Nayeri weaves together her own vivid story with the stories of other refugees and asylum seekers in recent years, bringing us inside their daily lives and taking us through the different stages of their journeys, from escape to asylum to resettlement.
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Amazing story of resilience and compassion
- By PAH on 09-06-19
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The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna
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For Stella Fortuna, death has always been a part of life. Stella’s childhood is full of strange, life-threatening incidents - moments where ordinary situations like cooking eggplant or feeding the pigs inexplicably take lethal turns. Even Stella’s own mother is convinced that her daughter is cursed or haunted. When the Fortunas emigrate to America on the cusp of World War II, Stella and her sister, Tina, must come of age side by side in a hostile new world with strict expectations for each of them.
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Misogyny at its worst
- By brenda on 01-15-20
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A Girl Is a Body of Water
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International award-winning author Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s novel is a sweeping and powerful portrait of a young girl and her family: who they are, what history has taken from them, and - most importantly - how they find their way back to each other. In her thirteenth year, Kirabo confronts a piercing question that has haunted her childhood: who is my mother? Kirabo has been raised by women in the small Ugandan village of Nattetta - her grandmother, her best friend, and her many aunts - but the absence of her mother follows her like a shadow.
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African narrators for African novels!
- By Lynn on 04-24-21
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The Third Daughter
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The turn of the 20th century finds 14-year-old Batya in the Russian countryside, fleeing with her family endless pogroms. Desperate, her father leaps at the opportunity to marry Batya to a worldly, wealthy stranger who can guarantee his daughter an easy life and passage to America. Feeling like a princess in a fairytale, Batya leaves her old life behind as she is whisked away to a new world. But soon, she discovers that she’s entered a waking nightmare. Her new “husband” does indeed bring her to America.
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brilliant novel based on shocking truth
- By Rochelle Jewel Shapiro on 07-05-20
By: Talia Carner
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The Parted Earth
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Spanning more than half a century and cities from New Delhi to Atlanta, Anjali Enjeti’s debut is a heartfelt and human portrait of the long shadow of the partition of the Indian subcontinent on the lives of three generations.
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Riveting
- By MSE on 05-14-21
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Embassy Wife
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Persephone Wilder, a displaced genius posing as the wife of an American diplomat in Namibia, takes her job as a representative of her country seriously and comes up with an intricate set of rules to survive a range of problems: how to dress in hundred-degree weather without showing too much skin, how not to look drunk at embassy functions, and how to eat roasted oryx with grace. She also suspects her husband is not actually the ambassador’s general counsel but instead a secret agent in the CIA. She takes the new trailing spouse, Amanda Evans, under her wing....
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Have narrator re-record this book
- By Amazon Customer on 09-30-21
By: Katie Crouch
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Lynda Van Devanter was the girl next door, the cheerleader who went to Catholic schools, enjoyed sports, and got along well with her four sisters and parents. After high school she attended nursing school and then did something that would shatter her secure world for the rest of her life: in 1969, she joined the army and was shipped to Vietnam. When she arrived in Vietnam her idealistic view of the war vanished quickly. She worked long hours in cramped, ill-equipped, understaffed operating rooms. She saw friends die.
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Real, raw story of a Vietnam Nurse
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What listeners say about Dust Child
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 03-16-23
Please read this book
This book is so good. It makes you feel so many emotions, and gives a view through fiction of a perspective that Americans rarely, if ever get and is very powerful
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18 people found this helpful
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- Sandra
- 03-25-24
Beautiful!
Very informative and well written. I loved all the characters that display their human nature and condition. I will look for other books from this author.
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- rwt
- 06-20-24
relatable, emotional, informative
A well written story with sympathetic characters. it depicts a most human aspect of American Vietnam war. it is thought provoking and touching. the marathon was expert as well
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- Cynthia
- 08-24-24
What an excellent book
I just love this book. This was a very thoughtful look at other aspects of war.
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- TPT
- 06-17-23
Beautiful and moving
Beautifully written and narrated. Although a fictional story, it very much portrayed the struggles and devastation of the Viet Nam War in the eyes of the young American soldiers and the Vietnamese girls; the lost of youth and innocence, love story, and the psychological and physical impacts that the characters endured over the years. As a Vietnamese who immigrated to the US when I was 10, all the Vietnamese proverbs that the author blended throughout the book brought back so many memories that I have forgotten over the years. Dan’s voice at times whining and the frankness of Thien’s voice at times rude and funny, and the northern VN soldier who has Alzheimer later in life (Viet Nam Vet from US, North and South VN) seem to ring so true - the chance meeting of all three, the moving Altar scene… This book takes you on a ride from childhood innocence, bubbling sweet crush, to later years after the war and eventually forgiveness. I found myself love, laugh, cry frustrate, angry and all the emotions in between and could not wait to get to the end. Once in a while you stumbled on a good book that when finished you would read again! I got the hard cover book and used my point to buy the Audible copy. I love the feel of books, but my eyes are not as good as it used to be :( The narrator for the Audible did an excellent job switching between all the different voices and tones in English and Vietnamese.
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21 people found this helpful
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- gina
- 12-29-23
A beautiful story, perfectly read
I couldn’t stop listening to this book! It is set both during the Vietnam war in the 70s (I was a teenager in those years and remember much of the details as described), and also in 2016. It’s a story told from different perspectives… the Vietnamese, American soldiers, and the Amerasian children who were created. It’s a story of war, of poverty, of love, loss, regrets, and forgiveness. Beautifully written and perfectly read. I did at times find it hard to keep some of the names straight but it all came together towards the end.
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- Denise
- 01-16-24
Such a compelling story!
A story everyone should read/listen to. Told with sensitivity and honesty. Would highly recommend.
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- AlexWals
- 07-21-24
Rich and beautiful, heartbreaking,&layered telling of events somewhat ignored by history
As many novels do, this started a bit slowly. Stay with it. As the characters are introduced and become intertwined, and their stories begin to mesh and wind, separate and come together in different configurations and relationships. The characters' personalities remain so steady, clear and vivid, it's easy, and valid, to get involved in every aspect of their lives.
The details all flow seamlessly, the author is so knowledgeable and skilled, I not only felt each scene and interaction, but am determined to read other stories about this part of world history.
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- Jazzlyn
- 04-29-23
Great book!
I Love everything about this book! A must read if you are looking for answers.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 01-02-24
Dust Child Was Captivating
I typically try to play it safe with my monthly credit and steer towards books with many reviews to play it safe, but something about Dust Child called out to me and I purchased it. I was barely able to stop listening once I started. It was captivating, sad, beautiful and so much more. The writing was fantastic, the narrator was perfect, and the story, though fictional, felt very authentic. At the end of the book, the author states that the book took 7 years of extensive research to write, and it shows. I'm glad I listened. Five stars all around.
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