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Wandering Souls

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Wandering Souls

By: Cecile Pin
Narrated by: Aoife Hinds, Ioanna Kimbook, Ainsleigh Barber
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About this listen

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION

'A deeply humane and genre-defying work of love and … hope’ OCEAN VUONG

‘Beautiful, brilliant’ R. F. KUANG

‘Dazzling’ OBSERVER

‘Will shatter your heart’ GLAMOUR

‘Powerful’ SUNDAY TIMES

An extraordinary story of the journey of one young family through love, loss and unwavering hope.

There are the goodbyes and then the fishing out of the bodies – everything in between is speculation.

One night, not long after the last American troops leave Vietnam, siblings Anh, Thanh and Minh flee their village and embark on a perilous journey in hope of a new life. Separated from their parents and fearing the worst they find themselves travelling alone in the world without a home to return to. After a twist of fate lands them in Thatcher’s Britain, they must somehow build new lives there. Will the love they have for each other be enough to keep them together?

Wandering Souls is a stunning, life-affirming testament to the healing power of stories.

**Celestial Lights, the latest novel from Cecile Pin is available to preorder now**

A TIME AND GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2023

‘Poignant and lyrical’ DAVID NICHOLLS

‘A powerful story of courage, love and unwavering hope’ MARIE CLAIRE

‘Beautiful… I loved every word’ PHILIPPA PERRY

‘A deeply affecting reckoning with history’ i-D

‘Tells one of the most important stories of our times’ LUCY CALDWELL

‘Special … Reading it is like watching a writer at work’ NEW YORK TIMES

Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Political World Literature Inspiring Tear-jerking Thought-Provoking Heartfelt

Critic reviews

‘I raced through it. Beautiful, brilliant, unflinching’ R. F. KUANG

‘This lean, affecting book packs a mighty punch and heralds a dazzling new talent’ OBSERVER

‘Powerful … a bold debut that breaks new ground’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘A deeply humane and genre-defying work of love and uncompromising hope through a long-overdue portrayal of Vietnamese life in the UK’ OCEAN VUONG

‘A heartbreaking novel … a deeply affecting reckoning with history’ i-D MAGAZINE

‘A poignant saga with its grieving, beating heart firmly in the right place, and heralds the arrival of an ambitious and promising new talent’ GUARDIAN

‘A powerful story of courage, love and unwavering hope’ MARIE CLAIRE

‘Something special – a polyvocal novel, an essay on inherited trauma and a quiet metafiction about telling stories we don’t own’ NEW YORK TIMES

‘Meticulously researched and beautifully imagined … deeply affecting’ TASH AW

‘As relevant now as it ever was. You won’t get through this without your heart breaking’ AnOther

‘Deeply moving and deeply generous … I cried reading it’ YARA RODRIGUES FOWLER

‘A searing, sweeping and intimate story of such heart and scope’ RACHEL LONG

‘Historical epic Wandering Souls … [offers] a very different take on the immigrant experience’ VOGUE

‘An enormously evocative portrait of dispossession’ FINANCIAL TIMES

All stars
Most relevant
At times painful to listen to, immaculately researched, graceful. Occasional asides from the author add depth and candour to the story. A must-listen.

Heartwrenchingly honest, beautiful

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Well written, inspiring and intriguing story. Would definitely recommend listening to.
Read at a good pace

Very moving

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I enjoyed this book and the way most of it was written, there were a couple of parts that I got lost in, the moving around of people’s stories could have been either left out or added in a different way, maybe reading this as a book rather than listening to it would make these parts sit better. I did like the way the writer would come in a tell a bit about her experience in writing the book at times to give a little depth and share truths around the story. It made me want to learn more about what happened in Vietnam in the 70s. Sometimes there were big gaps of time between the story that perhaps could have been told but I also liked that this was left to my imagination as some books can go into too much detail. Overall, it’s a story of survival and hope.

Sometimes confusing but still worth listening to

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This is my only my 2nd audiobook as I have had trouble concentrating on them before so I gave up. I figured I would try again. I absolutely loved this book. It has a deep soulful vibe and it was very interesting to hear about the lives of the ‘boat people’ - we really are all connected. All we want as people is connection and hope and love and this book brought it 💓🩵💖

Deep and meaningful

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a collage of multiple stories forming a heartbreaking picture of the lives of refugees, after the Vietnam war. a short book, but at times not easy to listen to. i would have liked for it to focus a bit more on the lives of the people during the war and occupation as well though, it felt like an important part of the story which was not insisted upon, and which would have helped with the overall picture.

heartbreaking

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