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Some other first party sections in a form of authorial voice – who we over time realise is the (fictional) writer of the novel and whose sections are a mixture of: her research into areas such as the factual sections as well into grieving and trauma; and her own feelings and debates about what she should include in the story In terms of form – what is at heart a relatively simply, if movingly written tale, is built out by a number of other different (and it has to be said at times not entirely cohesive) elements.

We see Hong Kong refugee camps, residing besides a port or airport, administered by the UNHCR and having 10.000 residents. This begins as the remaining troops leave Vietnam, and follows a family who is hoping to find a new home in America, hoping to live near their father’s brother who made the move many years before. First to leave are the eldest children: Anh, Minh, and Thanh. Their parents and younger siblings will follow as soon as possible. As they wait for the rest of their family to arrive, Anh takes over most of the parental duties, although she is only sixteen.There are the goodbyes and then the fishing out of the bodies—everything in between is speculation. The majority of the book’s a fairly conventional family saga, much of its power derived from the sheer force of the history that it reveals, as well as its continued relevance in an age where migrants making perilous, sea journeys have become so commonplace that their individuality and personal realities are too often overlooked. Pin’s novel opens in November 1978, three years after the last American forces left Vietnam, 16-year-old Anh, and two of her brothers, 14-year-old Minh and ten-year-old Thanh are being sent ahead by their parents to travel by boat to a refugee camp in Hong Kong, where they are expected to reunite with their mother, father and younger siblings before joining their uncle in America. Anh and her brothers reach Hong Kong but the rest of their family are less fortunate, falling victim to the infamous pirate raid that led to the murder of men and children and the repeated gang rapes of Vietnamese migrant women on the island of Koh Kra. Anh and her brothers eventually gain entry to Britain, despite the racist policies of the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Pin then follows Anh over a number of years as she and her brothers try to carve out a life for themselves in an alien, unwelcoming land. I suppose I could review the book itself. Anh and her brothers resettle in the UK, even though their initial plan is the US, because she lies and doesn't mention an uncle living in the US. That would've expedited their application. They tragically lose their parents and siblings before this point. While I easily followed Anh and her brothers' lives, the more confusing POV is from one of the dead siblings. I'm not sure what it added to the story.

This narration is interspersed with poetic lines from the spirit of their younger sibling Dao as he watches over them; snippets of what appear to be historical articles about refugees; fictionalizations of events related to the Vietnam War and immigration; and first-person reflections from a writer who is researching and trying to put together an account of her own immigrant family’s struggles. This may seem like it could be a confusing jumble of words and subplots, but Pin weaves the variety of voices together beautifully to craft a book about the simultaneous pain and triumph of moving forward and letting the ghosts of the past rest. Pin's novel does not quite work, but I admire her ambition and drive to piece together a narrative about the destiny of the so-called boat people. Set in 1978, we meet a Vietnamese family who flees their home country, but the parents and four siblings drown - only three of the children make it to England where they struggle to make a life for themselves under Thatcherism. The kids stand pars pro toto for the Vietnamese immigrant experience in the UK, and Pin employs shifting perspectives to widen the family story to a whole panorama, among the voices are a second-generation immigrant, a ghost and two soldiers involved in the Operation Wandering Soul during the Vietnam War. The author also adds in historical documents, news reports, etc. pp. Pin is not what some readers would think of as a horror novel — in fact, it veers more toward being a domestic drama, with some thriller elements throw in. But I say it’s a horror novel; feel free to disagree. The best thing about art is it’s subjective. This is a story of family, loss, war, memories and the lasting repercussions of war. A story of searching for a new life in a new land, not out of choice but out of necessity - if you want to continue living.

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The book also time shifts between 1978 and 2022. For the most part the time of settlement in Hong Kong and the Uk is at the heart of the story. Thi Anh’s maturity to older age and motherhood is skimmed over very rapidly. I didn’t think this adversely affected the book which wasn’t really about one individual, I felt.

What a horror novel is is somewhat subjective. Must a horror novel be a tale of the supernatural? Must it feature the inexplicable? How much gore is necessary, and how high must the body count be?However tragedy strikes the second boat and for the rest of the main third party story we follow Anh and her brothers via a refugee camp in Hong Kong, then to a refugee camp in Hampshire, and to a council flat in Catford which they move to in 1980 and then right through to the present day.

This is one of the times to reiterate that I grade partly on an idiosyncratic curve determined by author, genre, and an elusive sense of whether or not the book fulfilled its own purpose.I’m trying to carve out a story between the macabre and the fairytale so that a glimmer of truth can appear In Wandering Souls, Cecile Pin presents us with a shattered story of the immigrant experience that is mediated to us largely through the experiences of Anh, one of the 'boat people' who left Vietnam in the aftermath of war in the 1970s. Anh—barely a teenager at the time—loses both parents and all but two siblings before even reaching the first asylum outpost, and has to take on responsibility for raising and protecting her two young brothers while navigating life as a refugee. The trio are denied asylum by the US where they were originally headed, and have to go to England instead, which is unfamiliar, harsh, and devoid of any narratives about the immigrant dream. The lives they build there are full of grief for their culture and for their loved ones, and that oft-spoken about pressure to achieve bigger things so as to justify the great loss and sacrifice. Pin became the victim of bad timing as by the time production had finished, New World Pictures was in the process of dissolving their film division and while Pin had been intended to be a final theatrical release, the company decided against it at the last minute. [2] A screening of the film was met with a negative response, and rather than invest any time or resources into Pin New World instead released it direct to video. [2] The film eventually started getting more attention in 1991 where prints in Manhattan and San Francisco were given successful runs with many critics declaring the film to be overlooked and becoming a Cult film. [2] Pin’s prose is polished and lucid although it’s sometimes more practical than lyrical, rooted in careful research, down to the detailed descriptions of the refugee camps where people like Anh were held during the late 1970s and early 80s. From my perspective it’s not a great piece but it is an extremely promising first novel. There’s a sense of something deeply-felt driving Pin’s portrayal of Anh and her family’s fate, potent enough to sweep me up and carry me along in its wake.