MY MOTHER, THE MERMAID CHASER

Sixteen-year-old Paul spends a summer in Vietnam tracing the life of his long-absent mother, who was a wartime refugee.

Back home in San Jose from Vietnam, Paul is ready to tell his skeptical sister, Jane, what he learned about their estranged mother, Ngọc Lan. Thirteen years ago, Ngọc Lan walked out on them and their father, causing trauma that Jane continues to process in therapy. It’s 2008, nine years after the events of My Father, the Panda Killer (2023), when Jane was on the cusp of going to college, leaving Paul to contend with their abusive father alone. At that time, Jane recounted to Paul their father Phúc’s raw, hyperreal tale of escape from Vietnam—a harrowing journey through pirate-infested, shark-filled waters. In this poignant companion novel that Hoang calls “history adjacent,” Paul and Ngọc Lan’s stories alternate, their family lore satisfyingly converging. The novel follows Paul as he explores Vietnam’s vibrant streets, searching for clues to his mother’s past. His journey sharply contrasts with Ngọc Lan’s emotional departure from her homeland in 1975. The dual narratives are united through a guiding spirit that swims by “like a mermaid painted with undefined brushstrokes.” Vietnamese superstitions and the complexities of knowing who’s related to whom—and what to call them—form a humorous and informative backdrop, adding bright cultural insights that lighten the somber impact of war’s profound grief.

A haunting, compassionate tribute to the children of war.