Books: La nuit nous a surpris (The Unwanted)

Last week, I finished a very difficult and disturbing book: La nuit nous a surpris (French translation of The Unwanted by Kien Nguyen). I read it in french because I found it in the FNAC in Mulhouse, France. I usually prefer to read in original version (when I understand the language), but in that case it was OK, because the style was less important than the facts.

The book talks about the early life of a Vietnamese boy during the very last days of the fall of Saigon, and then the arrival of the communists. It's a very difficult time for the boy and his family, because before the fall, they had lived according to high standards, and were considered as capitalists. Additionally, and probably most importantly, the boy and his brothers are both mixed, of american father.

The story is very hard on the reader. It was especially interesting for me because we have been to Hanoi before, and I must admit to have felt some admiration for the way the North Vietnamese fought for their freedom from the French first, and then the Americans. Reading an account "from the other side" shed a new light on that period, and reminded me that nothing is ever as simple as it appears.

Kien Nguyen
La nuit nous a surpris
Original title: The Unwanted
Edition 10/18
ISBN 2-264-03935-3