Things We Lost to the Water
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Quyen Ngo
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By:
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Eric Nguyen
About this listen
A captivating novel about an immigrant Vietnamese family who settles in New Orleans and struggles to remain connected to one another as their lives are inextricably reshaped. This stunning debut is "vast in scale and ambition, while luscious and inviting…in its intimacy" (The New York Times Book Review).
When Huong arrives in New Orleans with her two young sons, she is jobless, homeless, and worried about her husband, Cong, who remains in Vietnam. As she and her boys begin to settle in to life in America, she continues to send letters and tapes back to Cong, hopeful that they will be reunited and her children will grow up with a father.
But with time, Huong realizes she will never see her husband again. While she attempts to come to terms with this loss, her sons, Tuan and Binh, grow up in their absent father's shadow, haunted by a man and a country trapped in their memories and imaginations. As they push forward, the three adapt to life in America in different ways: Huong gets involved with a Vietnamese car salesman who is also new in town; Tuan tries to connect with his heritage by joining a local Vietnamese gang; and Binh, now going by Ben, embraces his adopted homeland and his burgeoning sexuality. Their search for identity - as individuals and as a family - threatens to tear them apart, until disaster strikes the city they now call home and they are suddenly forced to find a new way to come together and honor the ties that bind them.
©2021 Eric Nguyen (P)2021 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
One of President Obama's Favorite Books of the Year
Winner of the Crook's Corner Book Prize for Best Debut Novel Set in the American South
Longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize
A Christian Science Monitor Best Book of the Year
An Atlanta Journal Constitution Top 10 Southern Book of the Year
A Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year
Named One of the "Fifteen Books to Watch For" by The New York Times
“Nguyen’s narrative strikes a very elusive balance: vast in scale and ambition, while luscious and inviting - enchanting, really - in its intimacy.” (Bryan Washington, The New York Times Book Review)
“Eric Nguyen’s masterful debut novel Things We Lost to the Water is a deeply engaging, heart-rending look at a family of Vietnamese refugees struggling to survive and how the choices they make as individuals have ripple effects on each other.” (Suzanne Van Atten, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
"Things We Lost to the Water introduces an exquisite new voice in author Eric Nguyen; his debut novel is a luminous, balletic portrayal of an immigrant Vietnamese family in the US.... Nguyen navigates their multiple perspectives with dexterity and emotional clarity, aching but never maudlin. I loved every page." (Arianna Rebolini, BuzzFeed)
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- By Jennifer Baratta She/Her on 05-16-21
By: Michael Koryta
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Sharks in the Time of Saviors
- By: Kawai Strong Washburn
- Narrated by: Jolene Kim, Kaleo Griffith, G. K. Bowes, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1995 Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, on a rare family vacation, seven-year-old Nainoa Flores falls overboard a cruise ship into the Pacific Ocean. When a shiver of sharks appears in the water, everyone fears for the worst. But instead, Noa is gingerly delivered to his mother in the jaws of a shark, marking his story as the stuff of legends. Nainoa’s family, struggling amidst the collapse of the sugarcane industry, hails his rescue as a sign of favor from ancient Hawaiian gods - a belief that appears validated after he exhibits puzzling new abilities.
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Glad This Was Free
- By Shad Huddleston on 04-01-20
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A Good Country
- A Novel
- By: Laleh Khadivi
- Narrated by: Assaf Cohen
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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A timely novel about the radicalization of a Muslim teen in California - about where identity truly lies, and how we find it. Laguna Beach, California, 2010. Reza Courdee, a 14-year-old straight-A student and chemistry whiz, takes his first hit of pot. In as long as it takes to inhale and exhale, he is transformed from the high-achieving son of Iranian immigrants into a happy-go-lucky stoner.
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A very important contribution
- By Mia on 05-29-17
By: Laleh Khadivi
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If I Forget You
- A Novel
- By: Thomas Christopher Greene
- Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Twenty-one years after they were driven apart by circumstances beyond their control, two former lovers have a chance encounter on a Manhattan street. What follows is a tense, suspenseful exploration of the many facets of enduring love. Told from alternating points of view through time, If I Forget You tells the story of Henry Gold, a poet whose rise from poverty embodies the American dream, and Margot Fuller, the daughter of a prominent, wealthy family, and their unlikely, star-crossed love affair.
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Good, but not great.
- By Amazon Customer on 07-01-16
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The McAvoy Sisters Book of Secrets
- A Novel
- By: Molly Fader
- Narrated by: Nancy Peterson
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s been 17 years since the tragic summer the McAvoy sisters fell apart. Lindy, the wild one, left home, carved out a new life in the city, and never looked back. Delia, the sister who stayed, became a mother herself, raising her daughters and running the family shop in their small Ohio hometown on the shores of Lake Erie. But now, with their mother’s ailing health and a rebellious teenager to rein in, Delia has no choice but to welcome Lindy home.
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Great story
- By Nessa on 09-25-23
By: Molly Fader
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June Bug
- By: Chris Fabry
- Narrated by: Chris Fabry
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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For as long as she can remember, June Bug and her father have traveled the back roads of the country in their beat-up RV, spending many nights parked at Walmart. One morning, as she walks past the greeter at the front of the store, her eyes are drawn to the pictures of missing children, where she is shocked to see herself. This discovery begins a quest for the truth about her father, the mother he rarely speaks about, and ultimately herself.
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Get Out The Box Of Tissues
- By 20eagle16 on 07-03-21
By: Chris Fabry
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Before the Storm
- By: Diane Chamberlain
- Narrated by: Abby Craden, Kris Koscheski
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Laurel Lockwood lost her son once through neglect. She's spent the rest of her life determined to make up for her mistakes, and she has succeeded in becoming a committed, protective parent-maybe even overprotective. Still, she loosens her grip just enough to let Andy attend a local church social-a decision that terrifies her when the church is consumed by fire. But Andy survives...and remarkably, saves other children from the flames.
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Great book...HORRIBLE performance
- By Andrea on 03-10-15
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The Time Traveler's Wife
- By: Audrey Niffenegger
- Narrated by: Fred Berman, Phoebe Strole
- Length: 17 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Clare and Henry have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was 36. They were married when Clare was 23 and Henry was 31. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity from his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing.
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One of my favorite books
- By Joey on 01-13-08
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Lone Stars
- By: Justin Deabler
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Lone Stars follows the arc of four generations of a Texan family in a changing America. Julian Warner, a father at last, wrestles with a question his husband posed: what will you tell our son about the people you came from, now that they're gone? Finding the answers takes Julian back in time to Eisenhower's immigration border raids, an epistolary love affair during the Vietnam War, crumbling marriages, queer migrations to Cambridge and New York, up to the disorienting polarization of Obama's second term.
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Read for bookclub but fell in Love
- By Ericka Lawson on 09-11-22
By: Justin Deabler
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Just outside a hotel in Bordeaux, Philippe chances upon a young man who bears a striking resemblance to his first love. What follows is a look back at the relationship he’s never forgotten, a hidden affair with a gorgeous boy named Thomas during their last year of high school. Without ever acknowledging they know each other in the halls, they steal time to meet in secret, carrying on a passionate, world-altering affair.
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What listeners say about Things We Lost to the Water
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jaime
- 09-25-23
Displacement journeys will at some point touch all of us
At first impression, I admired the story, the characters and their familial connection and the connections from birth to adulthood. From mother to child and from water trauma to water trauma.
The amount of adapting displaced peoples have to do and the reminder of how every forgets about the Indigenous peoples of the territory they’ve found themselves in. Could be that displaced ppls have not had the oppt. to learn about Indigenous Peoples are still alive. Maybe whenever in America they end up - New Orleans - there’s no public remembrance of local Indigenous ppls. Not taught truthfully I’m schools or recognized - I don’t know. But, if there were, maybe the characters would consider this in their displacement journey? Empathize or relate somehow. Understand in a way. But, that’s not the story. I’m just always curious.
Regardless of my wishful plot twist, I appreciate the narrative in ways that really makes me think about the Canadian experience and what displaced people feel
when they are somewhere unfamiliar trying the best they can.
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- Martha Fry
- 07-29-22
So what happens!?
Eric Nguyen invested me in his characters then then ghosted the reader. So very disappointed.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Stephanie
- 04-05-23
Gorgeous novel and excellent narration
I’ll listen to anything narrated by Quyen Ngo, and I’m just lucky that every novel she narrates is great. Things We Lost to the Water is maybe one of my favorite books now. It explores the disruption and fragmentation of family, culture, and identity that comes with the immigrant experience in America, and it doesn’t disappoint.
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- Malory Merrill
- 03-01-22
Powerfully insightful
Loved listening to this book. Reading it felt difficult since I'm fairly ignorant of Vietnamese pronunciation, so hearing the narrator speak was refreshing to my overly concerned brain.
The story was a poignant telling of being uprooted from one home and learning to survive someplace new. The harsh alienation, the missteps in raising a child and the folly of youth, and discordant feeling of being out of place now matter where you go.
My only gripe likely has more to do with my personal taste in reading, but I didn't find there to be much plot to the story. But that doesn't mean it wasn't well written.
While I typically go in for books that are taking the reader in a journey and leaving you theorizing and curious, this reads like a recollection of memories that are striking in the life of the protagonists, but won't be the key to uncovering any grand mystery later in the narrative.
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- Lisa Fogel Cutlip
- 10-24-21
Narrator really helped me understand the story.
I wasn't sure if I liked this book at first, but it was a good story and I kept going. I don't prefer to listen to books, but I'm glad this is how I experienced this one. The narrator clearly understood the nature of Vietnamese characters and the rhythms of speech and of the text. It's a different style for me, but I appreciated the imagery and poetic ways certain moments were depicted.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Annie Griswold
- 08-11-22
Loved the narration and detail put into the story.
Such a wonderful story. Felt like I was there listening to this, he really captured and the details and essence of struggle, preserverence. Enjoyed every minute of listening to this story.
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- ANISAH A. ABIOLA
- 09-02-24
Scratching my head
The story was somewhat interesting but very confusing and disappointed with the ending. This ending came out of left field.
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- Susan
- 08-30-21
Vietnamese immigrant experience
A worthwhile read that appears to lose its way a little bit at the end. I know that endings are a challenge for many authors so I don’t hold a shaky ending against the author. The characters seem to have an inordinate number of very lucid dreams to move the story along, Something a lot of writers seem to be relying on these days to move the story forward.
A good story, however.
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5 people found this helpful
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- HeatherM
- 06-14-24
Powerful story of Vietnamese family
The impact of water on this Vietnamese family is beautifullt woven in to the story. There is loss, love, tragedy, hope, all efortlessly and truthfully told.
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- Amazon Customer
- 10-17-21
One on the best of the year?
For me I find it hard to believe this is one of the best of the year.
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1 person found this helpful