VU TRAN reads from his debut novel DRAGONFISH together with TOD GOLDBERG

Dragonfish (W. W. Norton & Company)

Robert, a rugged Oakland cop, still can’t let go of Suzy, the mysterious Vietnamese wife who left him. Now she’s disappeared from her new husband, Sonny, a dangerous Vietnamese smuggler and gambler who blackmails Robert into finding her for him. Pursuing Suzy through the glitzy gambling dens of Las Vegas, Robert finds himself chasing the past that haunts Suzy—one that extends back to a refugee camp in Malaysia after the fall of Saigon and to her daughter, Mai, abandoned long ago, now a steely professional poker player. The dangerous legacy of Suzy’s guilt threatens to immolate them all.

Taut, cinematic storytelling, vivid dialogue, and mesmerizing atmosphere combine here with beautiful, original prose. Some aspects of Tran’s own life are present in Dragonfish. He was born on September 17, 1975, six months after the fall of Saigon. In 1980—like the novel’s characters Suzy and her daughter Mai—Vu Tran, with his mother and sister, escaped Vietnam by boat and ended up in the refugee camps on Pulau Bidong. They spent four months there until Tran’s father sponsored them and they moved to the United States.  Their reunion in Tulsa, Oklahoma—where Tran would grow up—was where he met his father for the first time. 

“On the pure joyous level of great storytelling, Dragonfish is a top notch mystery; but it also deals with so goddamn much: the ramifications of war and the perils of assimilation, the impossibility of straddling two cultures and belonging to none, the limitations of the past, grief, lost lovers, gambling, ghosts, and Vegas, baby, Vegas. Note-perfect. Heartbreaking.  Profound. Dragonfish is a polished dagger of a novel that will cut out your heart."  -- Charles Bock, New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Children

“A haunting, beautifully written novel, almost more ghost story than thriller, as Tran explores the world of refugees, immigrants, and the long hold the past and its dead hold on the present.” – Sara Paretsky, New York Times bestselling author of the V. I. Warshawski novels

"Dragonfish is a novel about identity, exile and the chains of memory wrapped in the muscle of a thriller. The suspense kept me turning the pages, but the beautiful writing and aching sense of loss remained with me long after I reached the end.” --  Lisa Brackmann, New York Times bestselling author of Rock Paper Tiger and Dragon Day

“Is this an immigrant saga disguised as a crime novel? Or a smart thriller that just happens to be set in the Vietnamese immigrant community in Las Vegas? It’s both -- but what matters is that Vu Tran has written a debut novel of uncommon artistry, about a group of Vietnamese Americans and the history of love, violence, and sacrifice that binds them together and tears them apart.”  – Tom Perrotta, New York Times-bestselling author of Nine Inches and Little Children

“Vu Tran's spellbinding debut novel had me turning pages late into the night.  I was drawn in partly by the book's utterly engrossing plot, partly by its vivid portrayal of a pitiless and dangerous Las Vegas, but mostly by its lovingly interwoven themes of loss, longing, renewal, and cultural memory.” – Tim O’Brien, winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Lifetime Achievement

“Vu Tran’s Dragonfish is that rare hybrid marvel—a literary thriller, a narrative of migration and loss that upends the conventions of any form. Tran draws the reader into an exquisitely rendered world of violence and heartbreak, loss and love that is impossible to forget.”  – Dinaw Mengestu, author of The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears and How to Read the Air

“Sometimes it's creepy, like a really fine noir novel. Other times it's heartbreaking, as when it dives deep into the anguish of Vietnamese refugees. But either way, Dragonfish is absolutely gripping. Vu Tran has written a terrific novel.” – Tom Bissell, author of The Father of All Things: A Marine, His Son, and the Legacy of Vietnam

Vu Tran is the winner of a Whiting Award recognizing “exceptional talent and promise,” and he teaches creative writing at the University of Chicago. In 2008, Tran was asked to contribute a short story about Chinatown to the Las Vegas Noir anthology (Akashic Books).  After “This Or Any Desert” was included in the 2009 Best American Mystery Stories, he found himself still intensely drawn to the four main characters—Robert, Suzy, Sonny, and Sonny Jr.. In particular, he thought it would be interesting to apply elements of his own life to their backstories. Tran expanded the story and devised Suzy’s letters, the novel’s secondary narrative, which provides a riveting literary and emotional contrast to the crime narrative.

Tod Goldberg is the author of several books of fiction, including the novels Living Dead Girl, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Fake Liar Cheat and the popular Burn Notice series, as well as two collections of short stories, Simplifyand Other Resort Cities. His essays, nonfiction, and journalism have appeared widely, including, most recently, in Best American Essays 2013. His latest novel, Gangsterland, was release in fall 2014. Tod Goldberg holds an MFA in Creative Writing and Literature from Bennington College and lives in Indio, CA where he directs the Low Residency MFA program in Creative Writing & Writing for the Performing Arts at the University of California, Riverside.