Dragonfish - A Novel - Hardcover

Vu Tran s Dragonfish is that rare hybrid marvel a literary thriller, a narrative of migration and loss that upends the conventions of any form. Tran draws the reader into an exquisitely rendered world of violence and heartbreak, loss and love that is impossible to forget. --Dinaw Mengestu, author of The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears and How to Read the Air"

On the pure joyous level of great storytelling, Dragonfish is a top notch mystery Note-perfect. Heartbreaking. Profound. Dragonfish is a polished dagger of a novel that will cut out your heart. --Charles Bock, New York Times best-selling author of Beautiful Children"

[T]ransfixing . [L]ike such writers as Caryl Phillips, Dinaw Mengestu and Edwidge Danticat, [Tran] is devoted to capturing the immigrant experience and widening everyone's understanding of its particular as well as universal truths.--Lloyd Sachs"

[A] most enjoyable mystery, from its distinct, dazzling premise all the way to its satisfying conclusion.

Thoughtfully contemplates cultural identity in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.--Jarry Lee

Vu Tran's spellbinding debut novel had me turning pages late into the night. I was drawn in partly by the book's utterly engrossing plot, partly by its vivid portrayal of a pitiless and dangerous Las Vegas, but mostly by its lovingly interwoven themes of loss, longing, renewal, and cultural memory.--Tim O Brien, winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Lifetime Achievement"

Nuanced and elegiac . Vu Tran takes a strikingly poetic and profoundly evocative approach to the conventions of crime fiction in this supple, sensitive, wrenching, and suspenseful tale of exile, loss, risk, violence, and the failure of love.--Donna Seaman"

Is this an immigrant saga disguised as a crime novel? Or a smart thriller that just happens to be set in the Vietnamese immigrant community in Las Vegas? It s both but what matters is that Vu Tran has written a debut novel of uncommon artistry, about a group of Vietnamese Americans and the history of love, violence, and sacrifice that binds them together and tears them apart.--Tom Perrotta, New York Times best-selling author of Nine Inches and Little Children"

A haunting, beautifully written novel, almost more ghost story than thriller, as Tran explores the world of refugees, immigrants, and the long hold the past and its dead hold on the present.--Sara Paretsky, New York Times best-selling author of the V. I. Warshawski novels

The suspense kept me turning the pages, but the beautiful writing and aching sense of loss remained with me long after I reached the end.--Lisa Brackmann, New York Times best-selling author of Rock Paper Tiger and Dragon Day

Robert, a rugged Oakland cop, still can t let go of Suzy, the mysterious Vietnamese wife who left him. Now she s disappeared from her new husband, Sonny, a violent Vietnamese smuggler and gambler who blackmails Robert into finding her for him. Pursuing Suzy through the glitzy, sleazy gambling dens of Las Vegas, Robert finds himself chasing the past that haunts Suzy one that extends back to a refugee camp in Malaysia after the fall of Saigon. Her daughter, abandoned long ago, is now a steely professional poker player. The dangerous legacy of Suzy s guilt threatens to immolate them all, including Happy, her best friend. Taut, cinematic storytelling, vivid dialogue, and mesmerizing atmosphere combine here with beautiful, original prose. Based on his work chosen for The Best American Mystery Stories, Vu Tran s debut is a noir page-turner resonant with the lasting reverberations of lives lost and lives remade a generation ago."