Books like We Should Never Meet by Aimee Phan
Interwoven, the stories span from before Saigon’s fall in 1975 to contemporary "Little Saigon" in Southern California. They examine the 1975 Operation Babylift, in which thousands of Vietnamese orphans were evacuated to the United States. Four narratives follow an orphan’s journey as seen through a teenage mother, a Mekong Delta duck farmer, a social worker in Saigon, and a volunteer doctor from abroad. The remaining four tales set twenty years later follow four Vietnamese orphans—Kim, an Amerasian searching for her mother; Vinh, a gang‑involved ex‑boyfriend; Mai, an orphan fighting to leave foster care; and Huan, an adopted Amerasian who returns to Vietnam with his adoptive mother—illuminating the complex challenges of identity, displacement, and belonging in a post‑war context.
First publish date: 2004
Genre: General Fiction/Short Stories
Authors: Aimee Phan
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