Books
The Unwanted - a memoir
 Saigon fell to the Viet Cong on April 30, 1975. Kien Nguyen watched the last U.S. Army helicopter leave without him, without his brother, without his mother, without his grandparents. Kien was more at risk than most because of his odd blond hair and his light eyes—because he as Amerasian. He was the most unwanted.
Told with stark and poetic brilliance, this is a story of survival and ultimately a story of hope. It is a moving and personal record of a family's journey to America and of a tumultuous and important piece of history.
Told with the author's unique perspective—Kien Nguyen was born in Nhatrang, South Vietnam, in 1967, to a Vietnamese mother and an American G.I. father—this memoir continues the legacy of unforgettable Vietnam stories such as Full Metal Jacket and Platoon.
Media Reviews
Douglas Brinkley, Director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies and Professor of History at the University of New Orleans, author of Rosa Parks (Penguin Lives), FDR and the Creation of the U.N. (with Townsend Hoopes), and the American Heritage History of the United States:
"Kien Nguyen's The Unwanted is a haunting memoir of both nightmarish agony and redemptive self-discovery destined to become a literary classic. Written by a Vietnamese immigrant storyteller whose mesmerizing prose is reminiscent of Frank McCourt and Alfred Kazin, The Unwanted is a cultural experience you won't easily forget."
Lan Cau, author of Monkey Bridge and Everything You Need to Know About Asian American History (with Himilce Novas)
Compellingly told, Kien Nguyen's story of an Amerasian boy and his mother unfolds dramatically page by page. It not only touches the heart but contributes to our understanding of the history of postwar Vietnam."
Marlene Chamberlain:
The "unwanted" in the title refers to the American children who resulted from U.S. involvement in Vietnam from the late 1950s to 1975. Kien has blond hair and blue eyes and is only eight when Saigon falls to the communists in the spring of 1975. He is at the American embassy with his mother and other family members waiting for the last helicopters to leave Vietnam. However, one helicopter crashes and the other flees, leaving hundreds of Vietnamese stranded in hostile territory. His mother, once a wealthy banker, is left with nothing after her house is "given" to a Communist Party member; and Kien and his brother are considered half-breeds by the conquering North Vietnamese and by their own neighbors and some relatives. Together with his mother, younger brother, grandparents, and a former servant, Kien learns to survive by trying to grow up early. When an attempted escape turns tragic, Kien becomes a prisoner in Vietnam. This is a moving memoir by someone who was forced out of childhood by war and its many disruptions.
USA Today:"He writes with a voice of innocence that takes us into the heart and spirit of one person's undeserved and tragic childhood."
Library Journal:
Ultimately, his tale is one of extraordinary courage and human will, for Nguyen and his mother held their family together in the face of great hardships. Beautifully written and inspirational, this memoir is highly recommended.
Publishers Weekly:
Although his writing lacks the lyricism of recent memoirs like The Liar's Club or Angela's Ashes, Nguyen's voice is clear and strong, and he is adept at capturing both the broad sweep of life under the Vietcong and the peculiarities of growing up in a colorful and emotionally dysfunctional family during a jarring and vicious revolution.
People Magazine:"A remarkable tale of survival at all costs."—Julie K. L. Dam
Washington Post Book Worldt:"Compelling....A haunting story."—Laura Ciolkowski,
USA Today
"Nguyen writes with a voice of innocence that takes us into the heart and spirit of one person's undeserved and tragic childhood."—Carol Memmott
Los Angeles Times:"Heart-rending....A harrowing account of what life was like for Kien Nguyen and his family in those nightmare years."—Merle Rubin
Minneapolis Star Tribune:"Vivid and compelling.... A gripping, emotionally raw story....Kien's story deserves a place with the best memoirs of immigration and exile."—Richard C. Kagan
The Tapestries - a novel
 In his debut novel, Kien Nguyen, author of the critically acclaimed memoir The Unwanted, invites readers into his lush family history as he reinvents the story of his grandfather, a gifted embroiderer who served in the court of the last king of Vietnam. Set at the turn of the century, THE TAPESTRIES is a compelling and lyrically rendered tale of mesmerizing intrigue and passionate love.
The year is 1916, and it is a chilly dawn on the Perfume River. As the sun peeks out from behind the jagged edge of a mountain, an old man searches the shoreline for a place to dock the bridal sampan. Inside the cabin of this elegant vessel, a shy bride waits, nervously anticipating the very moment when she will first set eyes on her husband. Ven is about to marry into the house of Nguyen, the wealthiest and most envied family in the Cam Le Village. What she doesn't yet know is that her wedding bed will be shared with a groom almost two decades her junior, a boy only seven years of age named Dan. Ven's marriage to Dan seals her position as servant to the Nguyen family, and thus secures her bond as caretaker to her child husband. But a dark cloud soon moves over the Nguyen household, and a petrified Dan, cloaked by the branches of a nearby tree, watches in horror as his father is beheaded in a bid for power by the village's greed-driven mayor. Fearful for the life of her young master, Ven concocts a brilliant plan that will both save Dan and position him to someday avenge the death of his father. She hides her young husband among the murderers themselves by selling him to the house of Toan. What Ven doesn't anticipate is that as Dan becomes a man under the nose of his enemy, he will fall in love with his mistress, the mayor's granddaughter, Tai May, and his quest for revenge will be forever altered.
As a young boy in Vietnam, Kien Nguyen spent hours staring at the richly colored tapestries that adorned the walls of his grandparents' home. The intricate pictures relayed stories that had been passed down through generations of the Nguyen family. In THE TAPESTRIES, Nguyen masterfully weaves his grandfather's personal tale into the pages of this engaging novel, creating a vivid literary fabric of his own.
Media Reviews
Publishers Weekly: Nguyen's difficult early life in Vietnam as the son of a wealthy Vietnamese woman and an American GI was the subject of his memoir, The Unwanted. With The Tapestries, he proves he is at least as talented a writer of fiction as nonfiction. Booksellers might recommend him particularly to fans of Anchee Min, another writer who has made crossover from memoir to fiction.
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