Images   Acknowledgments   Images

My deepest thanks to Amerasians, mothers and fathers of Amerasians, and all other participants of my PhD research project who shared with me their life experiences and allowed me to fictionalize their stories into this novel. Their names do not appear here, as I would like to protect their privacy and identity, but I bow to them with my deepest gratitude and sincerely hope that their stories will continue to inspire humans to love other humans more so that this world can become a better place.

I am grateful to Lancaster University for giving me a PhD scholarship and, more importantly, a free world to grow my writing dream. I am very lucky to have been mentored there by the award-winning writers Zoe Lambert, Sara Maitland, and Graham Mort. At Lancaster, Jenn Ashworth, George Green, Eoghan Walls, Anne O’Brien, Inés Gregori Labarta, Margot Douaihy, and Tessa McWatt read early versions of this manuscript and gave me much-needed encouragement. Sincere thanks to the writer Wayne Karlin, who helped me sharpen my vision for both my PhD project and this novel.

My journey as a novelist in English would not have been possible without two women who have believed fiercely in me from the very beginning and dedicated countless hours of their lives to this book: my literary agent, Julie Stevenson, and my editor, Betsy Gleick. To Julie, Betsy, and my team—Mae Zhang McCauley, Michael McKenzie, Stephanie Mendoza, Debra Linn, Travis Smith, Kendra Poster, Brunson Hoole, Annie Mazes, Katrina Tiktinsky, Anna Skudlarek, and everyone at Algonquin Books—thank you for lifting my writing up as if it were your own. My most sincere thanks to Christopher Moisan for Dust Child’s beautiful book jacket, Steve Godwin for the unique design inside this book, Chris Stamey for his good eyes in copy editing, and the wonderful people I am fortunate to work with at The Tuesday Agency, Workman Audio, Workman Publishing, Hachette Book Group, and Massie & McQuilkin Literary Agents.

To editors, publishers, and translators who have worked tirelessly to make my work available in many different languages: thank you for giving my writing such rich lives.

To writers, researchers, and filmmakers who have documented the Amerasian experiences as well as the impact of PTSD and trauma: thank you for informing my research with your work.

This book is a result of the very generous support from the Lannan Foundation, who awarded me the Lannan Fellowship in Fiction for my debut novel, The Mountains Sing. Prior to that, my poetry collection, The Secret of Hoa Sen, was published by BOA Editions as part of the Lannan Translations Selection Series. The kind and brilliant people at Lannan rarely advertise the impactful work that they do to support minority writers like me, and I would like to express my sincere thanks to the Lannan family and the entire team at the foundation and its volunteers. Special thanks to Patrick Lannan, Lawrence P. Lannan, Martha Jessup, and Penn Szittya.

Along my writing journey, I have been uplifted by organizations that are making significant impacts in promoting diversity in literature, two of which include The Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN) and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. My sincere thanks to Viet Thanh Nguyen, Isabelle Thuy Pelaud, Sharon Rab, and Nick Raines.

I am lucky to be surrounded by a wonderful writing community and am indebted to several writers and friends who read earlier versions of this manuscript and offered their insightful comments: Đinh Từ Bích Thúy, Paul Christiansen, Karl Marlantes, Thiếu Khanh, Natalie Jenner, Robert Mason, Sofia Akel, Steven DeBonis, Jimmy Miller, Trần Thị NgH, Elizabeth Griffiths. My heartfelt thanks to writers who read and provided their compassionate blurbs for this novel.

I am thrilled to be able to cite one of my most beloved Vietnamese works of literature: Nguyễn Du’s Truyện Kiều (The Tale of Kiều) in Dust Child. There are many translations of The Tale of Kiều and I chose to quote from the scholar and translator Huỳnh Sanh Thông’s beautiful and insightful translation (The Tale of Kiều, Yale University Press, 1983). Grateful thanks to Yale University Press for their permission.

The seed of my writing dream was sown in my childhood home in Ninh Bình, Northern Việt Nam, where my mother raised me with her lullabies and her storytelling. It grew in Bạc Liêu, Southern Việt Nam, where my father brought home many books and built a bookshelf for me with his hands. My parents never had a chance to go to university and worked days and nights to make sure my two brothers and I could continue to study. To my parents: Con cám ơn bố mẹ. Con yêu bố mẹ và biết ơn bố mẹ rất nhiều.

During the seven years (2015–2022) that I worked on this book, my family has been my pillar. To my husband Hans, my children Mai and Johann, my brothers, and my relatives: thank you for being the lush garden that surrounds me, protects me, enriches me, and nurtures me into the person I am today.

To readers, booksellers, book reviewers, teachers, librarians, book club leaders, bookstagrammers, and literary champions: thank you for being the wings that carry my stories further than I could dare hope. I would not be here without you!