My Documents

A Novel

By: Kevin Nguyen

Narrated by: Kelly Marie Tran

The paths of four family members diverge drastically when the U.S. government begins detaining Vietnamese Americans, in this “rich, gripping novel that lands squarely as a mirror of our contemporary moral squalor” (Los Angeles Times).

“Comically macabre . . . Nguyen [is] a stellar satirist who takes bold imaginative risks.”—The New York Times (Editors’ Choice)

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: TIME, THE NEW YORKER, ESQUIRE

Ursula, Alvin, Jen, and Duncan grew up as cousins in the sprawling Nguyen family. As young adults, they’re on the precipice of new ventures: Ursula as a budding journalist in Manhattan, Alvin as an engineering intern for Google, Jen as a naïve freshman at NYU, and Duncan as a promising newcomer on his high school football team. Their lives are upended when a series of violent, senseless attacks across America creates a national panic, prompting a government policy that pushes Vietnamese Americans into internment camps. Jen and Duncan are sent with their mother to Camp Tacoma while Ursula and Alvin receive exemptions.

Cut off entirely from the outside world, forced to work jobs they hate, Jen and Duncan try to withstand long, dusty days in camp and acclimate to life without the internet. That is, until Jen discovers a way to get messages to the outside. Her first instinct is to reach out to Ursula, who sees this connection as a chance to tell the world about the horrors of camp—and as an opportunity to bolster her own reporting career in the process.

Informed by real-life events, from Japanese incarceration to the Vietnam War and modern-day immigrant detention, Kevin Nguyen’s novel gives us a version of reality only a few degrees away from our own. Moving and finely attuned to both the brutalities and mundanities of racism, Mỹ Documents is a strangely funny and touching portrait of American ambition, fear, and family. The story of the Nguyens is one of resilience and how we return to one another, and to ourselves, after tragedy.

My documents

I liked this book. The story related to today’s events and it a reminder of how everyone is affected in such a different way.

Unique story and characters

Beautifully written book. Exploring themes so relevant to today’s political climate in a sensitive and personal way. Highly recommend <3

The narrator was excellent! The story felt too close to home in today’s America.

The characters were real and an opening to understanding the Vietnamese people and their culture.

Captivating story

Feels a bit too real for our current time. Read (listened to)
it in one sitting.

Realistic and moving

I felt this book was incredibly realistic and touches on aspects of human behavior and emotion surrounding the realities of detention and reintegration into society that we don’t immediately think of. It was moving. It was thought provoking.