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That Summer in Provincetown
Guernica Editions, Fall 2015
134 pages
Trade Paperback
ISBN13: 9781771830355
ISBN10: 1771830352
English
$15.00 Canada, $15.00 US
Read more from the Essential Prose Series
Daniel, a young French-Vietnamese man, lies dying in a Montreal hospital. Spurned by his family for contracting AIDS in Provincetown, Daniel spends his last months in despair. Only his cousin Mai stays by his side to record the darkest of family secrets. From French Indochina to present day North America, this novel follows three generations of a Vietnamese family as they endure their own folly and the whims of history.
My cousin Daniel passed away 28 years ago. The premature death of a talented young man brought incredible guilt to the family. And no one suffered this loss more than my mother. My mother did not wail like Uncle Hai did at the funeral parlour. Yet her silence spoke louder than any sobs. On the day Daniel passed away, my mother didn't lose just a nephew. She also lost a son.
Through circumstance, a family and its unravelling, the tracing of a simple migration, Caroline Vu brings to our doorstep the devastation of a generation.
Claudio Gaudio, author of Texas and 2013 ReLit finalist
A stunning portrait of a family, tinged with the colours of confabulation and set against the bloody backdrop of Vietnamese history.
Claire Holden Rothman, Governor General finalist and author of The Heart Specialist
The universality of Caroline Vu’s subtle messaging distinguishes her as one of Canada’s most exciting emerging authors.
Ottawa Review of Books
Books by Caroline Vu
