Goodbye Saigon: A Novel

PINNING, HILARIOUS AND HAUNTING."
--Glamour
Anh, a brash, resourceful Vietnamese refugee with a tortured past, has survived the end of her homeland, and now hangs on by a thread working in a shady casino in Southern California. She's the only thing standing between her ungrateful family and starvation. By dint of her wits and her guts, she picks up real money selling her phenomenal luck to a drugged-out gambling lawyer.
Then, with the help of a legal secretary named Jana, she creates an unlicensed law practice that actually begins to help the Vietnamese immigrants of Little Saigon. But their booming business angers a notorious Vietnamese gang who want to keep the power and the money in their own pockets. Yet Anh isn't afraid of anyone. Alone or with Jana, she's willing to start her own private war, where she takes all weapons, no prisoners, and breathes life into the future from the ashes of the dead.
"EXUBERANT...Performs the miraculous by making us laugh even as we

Thoroughly absorbing, this novel is a perfect choice for audio. Lauren Tom bring's Vida's already vivid characters vibrantly alive. The abridgMent successfully handles the flashbacks to Ahn's homeland, Vietnam, giving sufficient background to this well-rounded character. However, her partner, Jana, is not given the same attention, and some of the subplots involving her family are not fully resolved. Narrator Tom's pleasing voice overrides any shortcomings of the abridgment, making this audiobook a pleasure. Many of the Vietnamese names and locations may be unfamiliar to some readers but are made clear with Tom's excellent enunciation. This novel lingers in one's mind for its characters, story lines and engaging performance. A.L.M. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine