Thank you Harper Audio / Netgalley for the ALC and William Morrow / Netgalley #partner, for the advanced copy of All That’s Left Unsaid in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: William Morrow / Harper Audio
Published: September 13, 2022
Summary:
For fans of Everything I Never Told You and The Mothers, a deeply moving and unflinching debut following a young Vietnamese Australian woman who returns home to her family in the wake of her brother’s shocking murder, determined to discover what happened—a dramatic exploration of the intricate bonds and obligations of friendship, family, and community.
Just let him go. These are the words Ky Tran will forever regret. The words she spoke when her parents called to ask if they should let her younger brother Denny out to celebrate his high school graduation with friends. That night, Denny—optimistic, guileless, brilliant Denny—is brutally murdered inside a busy restaurant in the Sydney suburb of Cabramatta, a refugee enclave facing violent crime, an indifferent police force, and the worst heroin epidemic in Australian history.
Returning home to Cabramatta for the funeral, Ky learns that the police are stumped by Denny’s case: A dozen people were at Lucky 8 restaurant when Denny died, but each of the bystanders claim to have seen nothing.
Desperately hoping that understanding what happened might ease her suffocating guilt, Ky sets aside her grief and determines to track down the witnesses herself. With each encounter, she peels back another layer of the place that shaped her and Denny, exposing trauma and seeds of violence that were planted well before that fateful celebration dinner: by colonialism, by the war in Vietnam, and by the choices they’ve all made to survive.
Alternating between Ky’s voice and the perspectives of the witnesses, Tracey Lien’s extraordinary debut is at once heart-pounding and heart-rending as it probes the intricate bonds of friendship, family, and community through an unforgettable cast of characters, all connected by a devastating crime. Combining evocative family drama and gripping suspense, All That’s Left Unsaid is a profound and moving story, perfect for fans of Liz Moore, Brit Bennett, and Celeste Ng.
My thoughts:
I had attended William Morrow’s Fall Preview and this book was one of the ones presented and as soon as I heard about it, I requested it. I knew it was something I had to read and I’m so glad I did because I was blown away by this story. It is definitely one that I will be thinking about for some time to come.
I was completely gripped by this story – a debut nonetheless! At its core, it’s a mystery about what happened to young Denny Tran – why he was killed and by who. But underneath all this there is so much more to it’s a very layered story and the author deftly takes her time unpacking it all, giving us a story that is full of trauma and heartache, delving into the struggles that the Vietnamese refugees have had as they try to assimilate to life in Australia. And we also see how bad the opioid epidemic has hit Cabramatta and the effects it has had on the Tran family.
This book is not an easy one to read, yet it is one that once you start, you become fully engaged and invested in. I needed to find out what had happened to Denny Tran as much as I needed to know how the family would react once they got their answers. The book is mostly narrated by Denny’s sister, Ky, but there are also some chapters told by witnesses that were there the night of the murder.
This book makes you think. It puts you in the characters’ shoes many times, wondering how you would react, which makes it the perfect bookclub pick as there is so much to discuss and unpack. So many themes woven into this story really make it one that hits hard, yet tells a story that just begs to be discussed. This is the type of book that would probably benefit from multiple readings as so much is packed into it – little details and big ones that make the book what it is. While I had an e-copy and the audio, I think I will be buying a hard copy for my shelf because it is just that good and I do want to reread it.
Audio thoughts:
I loved listening to this one and thought that having multiple narrators made it that much better. I wasn’t familiar with any of the narrators – Aileen Huynh, Yen Nguyen, Amelia Nguyen – but I thought they each did a fantastic job in making this book come to life. Their pacing and intonation were spot on and they infused just the right amount of tension and emotion into their voices as needed.
