Mỹ Documents
Kevin NguyenAvailable April 8
Featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, WNYC, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Electric Literature, Our Culture, BookRiot, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Literary Hub
Where You Can Order
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Praise
"A sharp, riveting story of a Vietnamese American detention camp set in an alternate future... a moving portrait of the kind of people we become when we are trying to survive."
— Cathy Park Hong, author of Pulitzer Prize finalist Minor Feelings
“Preoccupied with dizzying and timely questions about what it means to be American, Mỹ Documents is an ambitious novel of ideas. Crucially, it never feels exploitative, cynical or disheartening. Nguyen’s writing is too funny and heartfelt for hopelessness . . . The land of the free is also the land of the incarcerated, the detained, the interned. In that sense, Kevin Nguyen has written a very American novel indeed.”
— The New York Times Book Review
"Steeped in history and drawn from our terrifying present, [Mỹ Documents] is as much a coming-of-age story for its characters as it is for the United States, a country forever losing its innocence . . . Risk and desperation give the book the fresh edge of a thriller while maintaining its larger focus as an entwined story of a family and imperialist history . . . [A] rich, gripping novel that lands squarely as a mirror of our contemporary moral squalor."
— The Los Angeles Times
"Focussing on one family’s struggle to endure a period of intense racial hostility, Nguyen examines the distinct forms that survival can take: withstanding state violence, overcoming familial rifts, and reclaiming one’s life."
— The New Yorker
“With relatable characters and abundant wit, Nguyen draws us into his state-of-the-art labyrinth, the startling sum of our Asian American fears. You’ll never think of the acronym AAPI the same way again.”
—Ed Park, author of Pulitzer Prize finalist Same Bed, Different Dreams
“The book lays bare how love, ambition, and ethics often muddle the story—and just how high the stakes are for getting it right.”
—Jenny Xie, author of Holding Pattern and a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree
Events
Wednesday, April 9, 2025Books Are Magic - Montague, Brooklyn NY
with Tracy O’Neill
Saturday, April 19, 2025Camp Kingston - Kingston, NY
with Marie-Helene Bertino
& DJing by Ryan Chapman
Monday, April 21, 2025Powell’s City of Books - Portland, OR
with Sarah Jeong
Friday April 25, 2025Kaarem - Santa Barbara, CA
Saturday April 26, 2025LA Times Festival of Books - Los Angeles, CA
with Porochista Khakpour, Alex Espinoza, & Mariam Rahmani
Tuesday May 13, 2025Riffraff - Providence, RI
with Lucia Retta
Tuesday May 20, 2025Westport Library - Westport, CT
with Jennifer Heikkila
Thursday May 29, 2025Audacious Book Club - virtual
with Roxane Gay
Contact
Publicity: Sarah Jean Grimm, Andrea Pura