Dust Child

Dust Child is a 2023 historical novel by Vietnamese author Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai. It is her second novel and second work to be published in English. Her first novel, The Mountains Sing, was the recipient of numerous literary awards, including the 2021 International Book Award and the 2021 PEN Oakland/ Josephine Miles Literary Award. Quế Mai has also published numerous works of poetry and nonfiction and is a celebrated novelist in her home country of Việt Nam. She holds a PhD in creative writing from Lancaster University in the UK and is active in multiple empowerment organizations that seek to improve safety, literacy, and representation for Vietnamese people. In addition to her writing and activism, she is also an executive producer of Intersections, a documentary series that sheds light on Amerasian children born during the Việt Nam war. Her novels explore the often-overlooked stories of Vietnamese people during the war and illuminate issues such as the sexual exploitation of Vietnamese women, the impact of chemical warfare on Vietnamese civilians (particularly children), and the postwar persecution of Vietnamese citizens who fought for and aided the American militaries.

This guide refers to the 2023 hardcover edition published by Algonquin.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss racialized physical and verbal abuse, racism, rape, sexual abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder, and wartime violence.

Plot Summary

Dust Child is narrated from the perspectives of three characters: Phong, an Amerasian man with a Vietnamese mother and Black American father who was abandoned by his parents as a child; Trang, a Vietnamese woman who had a relationship with Dan, an American soldier, during the war; and Dan, who returns to Việt Nam with his wife, Linda, in 2016, in an attempt to heal from his wartime trauma. While Phong’s and Dan’s narratives take place mostly in 2016 and after, with some flashbacks to the past, Trang’s sections take place exclusively during the war years.

The novel opens with Phong, who is revealed to be the “dust child” of the title—Vietnamese people call him this to discriminate against his mixed-race parentage. Phong’s mother gave him up for adoption shortly after his birth, and he spent the first years of his childhood at an orphanage. However, after the nun who cared for him at the orphanage died, Phong was unhoused and survived by taking on odd jobs, and he even turned to petty crime. Phong is an adult when the novel begins in 2016, and he has a wife and two children whom he loves deeply. He is a relatively successful farmer, but he has experienced a lifetime of discrimination in Việt Nam because of his dark skin and foreign parentage. He applies for a visa to the United States to try and escape this, but his application is denied. Disappointed, he desperately tries to find information about his parents, not only because this might help him emigrate but also because he has felt lonely and abandoned all his life.

Meanwhile, Dan returns to Việt Nam with his wife, Linda. Unbeknownst to Linda, Dan had a relationship with a Vietnamese woman whom he knew as “Kim” during the war years. He has endured years of guilt because he left “Kim” when she became pregnant. He hopes to find her while in Sài Gòn, but he plans to keep his search secret from Linda.

Trang, the novel’s third protagonist, is a young Vietnamese woman who moves to Sài Gòn during the war. She and her sister, Quỳnh, want to find work to help their parents pay off their sizeable debts. The two become “bar girls”—the girls think that this means that they will be paid conversationalists and companions to American soldiers, but to their shock, they discover that they are also expected to perform sex work. The women are exploited and abused by the soldiers and by the Vietnamese managers of the establishments where they are employed. In time, Trang falls in love with Dan and moves into an apartment with him; he knows her only by her pseudonym, “Kim.” However, when she reveals that she is pregnant with their child, he abandons her.

In 2016, a chance meeting between Phong and Dan gives Phong hope that Dan will be able to help him find his American father. Although Dan and Linda are skeptical that they will be able to assist Phong, the three remain in touch during Dan and Linda’s trip. Meanwhile, Dan tries to keep his search for “Kim” a secret, but Linda finds out. Although she is deeply hurt by Dan’s actions, she feels duty bound to find the mother of Dan’s child and offer any assistance that they can.

Ultimately, Dan discovers that Trang is the woman whom he knew as “Kim.” Through an advertisement that Dan places in a local paper, he and Linda are able to locate Quỳnh, who is now a respected businesswoman with a family of her own. She harbors a deep resentment against Dan because he abandoned her sister while she was pregnant. She reveals that Trang died not long after her daughter was born. She and Quỳnh were hit by a mortar while riding on a motorbike, and Trang died while protecting her child. Quỳnh tells them that she gave the girl up for adoption shortly thereafter and does not know what happened to her.

Phong gets a DNA test and sends his sample to a database created to reunite American soldiers with their Vietnamese children. Although he is not successful in finding his father, he does locate his mother. She is revealed to be none other than Quỳnh, Trang’s sister. Although Phong is initially angry with her for abandoning him, the two forge a relationship, and they also stay in touch with Dan and Linda. Dan is committed to helping Phong’s family, in part because he wants to atone for the terrible way that he treated Trang and all of the other Vietnamese people he encountered during the war. He also feels a kinship with Phong since he is his nephew. Quỳnh, Dan and Linda, and Phong’s wife and children form a nontraditional family of sorts, and the novel ends on a note of hope and reconciliation.