Banyan Moon

(Paperback)

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Description

A sweeping, evocative debut novel following three generations of Vietnamese American women reeling from the death of their matriarch, revealing the family's inherited burdens and buried secrets.

When Ann Tran gets the call that her beloved grandmother, Minh, has passed away, her life is already at a crossroads. Ann has built a seemingly perfect life. She lives in a beautiful lake house and has a charming professor boyfriend, but it all crumbles away with one positive pregnancy test.

With both her relationship and carefully planned future now in question, Ann returns home to Florida to face her estranged mother, Hu'o'ng. Under the same roof for the first time in years, mother and daughter must face the simmering questions of their past, while trying to rebuild their relationship without the one person who's always held them together.

Running parallel to this is Minh's story, as she goes from a lovestruck teenager living in the shadow of the Vietnam War to a determined young mother immigrating to America in search of a better life. And when Ann makes a shocking discovery in the Banyan House's attic, long-buried secrets come to light as it becomes clear how decisions Minh made in her youth affected the rest of her life and her family.

Spanning decades and continents, from 1960s Vietnam to the wild swamplands of the Florida coast, Banyan Moon is a stunning and deeply moving story of mothers and daughters, the things we inherit, and the lives we choose to make out of that inheritance.

Reviews

A riveting mother-daughter tale spanning two different timelines, and anchored by the magnetic pull of a Gothic home known as the Banyan House, Banyan Moon is author Thao Thai's beautiful debut * Elle, Best Books of 2023 *
A beautifully written, page-turning novel . . . Banyan Moon is a celebration of life in all its forms and a joy to read * Christina Baker Kline, author of THE EXILES *
Heart-shatteringly beautiful . . . a love letter to keepers of secrets, to motherhood, family and survival. Thao Thai is a major talent * Nguyen Phan Que Mai, author of THE MOUNTAINS SING *
Tender, gripping and heartbreaking. A haunting page turner that reexamines lineage, motherhood, and what it means to be a survivor . . . A welcome debut from a stunning voice who will forever impact the Vietnamese American canon * Carolyn Huynh, author of THE FORTUNES OF JADED WOMEN *
An honest and aching exploration of the gulf between generations . . . A novel of hope, a story of forgiveness, a reminder that even though we can never fully know the people closest to us, it is worth the try * Tracey Lien, author of ALL THAT'S LEFT UNSAID *
An intricately woven story of three generations of women, surviving and living each in their own way. This novel has everything you want: desire, betrayal, grit, tenderness, pride, love, and . . . the sacred secrets we make and keep to protect what we hold dear * Meng Jin, author of SELF-PORTRAIT WITH GHOST *
Thao Thai captures the complexities of familial love with an unflinching, yet gorgeously lyric, eye. Banyan Moon is an ambitious and masterful debut! * Stacey Swann, author of OLYMPUS, TEXAS *
A spellbinding and intricately layered story, Banyan Moon celebrates Vietnamese women * E. M. Tran, author of DAUGHTERS OF THE NEW YEAR *
Haunting, a little spooky and occasionally heartbreaking, this sweeping debut novel follows three generations of Vietnamese women as they try to find their way in the world * Good Housekeeping, Best Books of 2023 *
Powerful * Reader's Digest *

Author Bio

Thao Thai is a writer living in Ohio with her husband and daughter. Her work engages with tangled family relationships and the intersections of motherhood and identity. She's been published in Cup of Jo, Eater, Catapult, Sunday Long Read, and more. A recipient of the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, she has also been nominated for multiple Pushcart Prizes and earned fellowships in creative writing. She received her MFA from the Ohio State University and her MA from the University of Chicago.