All That's Left Unsaid

A young Vietnamese-Australian journalist returns home to Cabramatta after her brother has been murdered--stomped to death--in a crowded restaurant. She's shocked that the police seem to be making no progress and none of the witnesses saw a thing. She's new to journalism and finds asking hard questions difficult, but undertakes to find out who killed Denny, and why. returnreturnThere are two major themes in this novel. One has to do with Ky and her one-time friend Minnie, a girl from a dysfunctional home who was practically living with Ky's family until adolescence, when she let her curiosity lead her away from the constricted world of well-behaved Asian immigrants and into a group of kids who are breaking all the rules but seem to be enjoying themselves. Their falling out continues into adulthood, and to the moment in the restaurant when Denny was so violently killed. The other theme has to do with Cabramatta and its immigrant community, which has arrived with nothing but a lot of trauma and is going through a devastating heroin epidemic. Set in a real place, a suburb of Sydney with a large Vietnamese refugee population, Ky's and Minnie's choices illustrate just how difficult it is to make a future in a place that really doesn't want you. returnreturnHalfway through the novel, it felt unremittingly bleak, but the final chapters offered some valuable insight into the main characters and their troubled relationships, even offering an appreciation of the immigrant suburb that has a certain uniqueness and color. Though it's about a very specific (and real) time and place, American readers will see plenty of parallels to our wave of additions and gain insight into the difficult choices immigrant families face..