Review by Booklist Review
As a child of Vietnamese immigrants in Germany, Kiều grew up trying to blend in, going by the easier-to-pronounce name Kim. Her parents rarely spoke about Vietnam, or about her father's family living in California. But when Kiều's family Christmas celebration is interrupted by a call from her uncle Sơn, to tell her father, Minh, that their mother is dying, the call uncovers long-buried family secrets. Told from the alternating perspectives of Kiều, her father, and her uncle Sơn, Brothers and Ghosts examines the experience of one southern Vietnamese family during the Vietnam War, and its long aftermath. Minh left Vietnam in the late 1960s to attend medical school in Germany, where he began to see the war from a different perspective; Sơn struggled to survive after the fall of Saigon in 1975, fleeing twice before finding refuge in California. Kiều travels to meet her extended family while questioning what she knows of her own heritage. Inspired by her own family, journalist Khuê Phạm tells a wrenching story of family, war, and memory.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
