All That’s Left Unsaid is a well-chosen title for this debut novel by Tracey Lien. At its heart is the death of teenager Denny Tran in a well-patronised restaurant in Cabramatta, Sydney. No-one there on the night will say anything to the police. When her father calls with the news that Denny is dead, his older sister Ky, a journalist in Melbourne, returns to Cabramatta. After a disappointing visit to the police, she decides to seek and talk to the witnesses herself. It is a dangerous thing to do in the middle of a heroin epidemic.
The novel is about more than uncovering what remains unsaid about Denny’s death. It is also about what is left unsaid within Ky’s family and between Ky and her best friend, Minnie who disappeared during their final years of high school. It is also about community members remaining silent about drugs and crime and the treatment of children.
In this novel, Tracey Lien recreates Cabramatta in the 1990s with descriptions of its people, food, the mixture of Vietnamese and English spoken, and the way ordinary life continues for its citizens despite the drug dealers who operate in plain sight and the young people who fall victim to the scourge of heroin.
Lien focuses on Ky who, despite resenting her parents’ unrelenting pressure on her to succeed, strives to be ‘good’ and to meet their expectations. She is a complex and sympathetic character who has suffered a terrible loss. Her quest to find out how and why her brother died was so compelling, I couldn’t sleep until I finished the book in the early hours of the morning.
Not only is All That’s Left Unsaid a page-turner, it is also an easy book to read. The prose is straightforward, the dialogue snappy, and the descriptions packed with the colourful sights, smells and sounds of Cabramatta in the 1990s. It’s an enjoyable and educational read offering insights into the life of Vietnamese refugees and their children as they navigate Australian society.
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