Eric Nguyen Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Eric Nguyen is a published author of fiction.

Eric went to school in the state of Louisiana, where he studied creative writing at McNeese State University. He would graduate with his MFA in creative writing. Since then, he has been given fellowships from Voices of Our Nation Arts (VONA for short), Lambda Literary, as well as the Tin House Writers Workshop.

Eric first became a published author in print in 2021 with the publication of his debut fictional novel, Things We Lost to the Water. Besides being a writer, he also works for diaCRITICS.org as its editor in chief. He resides full time in Washington, D.C.

Eric Nguyen already made waves when he released his first novel to the world for readers everywhere to enjoy. The book was an immediate sensation from the time that Knopf Publishing Group helped Nguyen to release it. The novel made it to The New York Times when it declared the novel one of its top fifteen books that readers should watch out for in the month of May. The book was also noticed by Barack Obama, who named it to his reading list for summer of 2021.

Fellow authors and reviewers also had positive things to say about the novel as well as about Nguyen’s prose. The New York Times Book Review’s Bryan Washington described the author’s narrative as striking the balance of being ambitious and “vast in scale” while also achieving an intimacy that he described as “enchanting”. Nicola Griffith was similarly enchanted, both with the use of the concept of water in the novel but the water-like feeling of the prose itself in being not only clear and powerful but “life-giving” and praised the novel as being a “beautiful book”.

Roxane Gay also felt as Nicola Griffith did, calling Nguyen’s writing “absolutely gorgeous” and remarking how much she enjoyed the book. Others like Matthew Salesses praised the triumphant description of the writer’s detailed writing regarding three different relatives’ emotional lives over the course of decades. Charles Yuu called it a “powerful debut” that is about survival as well as family, love and loss.

Eric Nguyen is the author of the novel Things We Lost to the Water. If you enjoy writers with unique and powerful voices, want a cultural tour de force, an interesting drama to read, have an interest in Vietnam or New Orleans, or are just looking for a great read to pick up, check this book out!

This is the story of the members of a Vietnamese family that move to the city of New Orleans. As they begin to get used to their new area, they also attempt to maintain the bonds that they already have as their lives begin to change.

Main character Huong is married, but her husband Cong is still in Vietnam. She has moved to New Orleans with her two sons in tow. They are both young, and the family’s situation is desperate as Huong does not yet have a job or a place for them to stay yet. Homeless and doing her best to make it, she is doing everything that she can to establish a life for them all in the United States while worrying about her husband back in Vietnam. However, she has no choice but to stay focused and do all that she can to begin providing for them all here.

A novel of courage, strength, love, struggle, tenderness, loss, and more, this is a unique tale and a story that will give people a new take on New Orleans and what it takes to make it in America for those who came here with nothing. Stormy Vietnam gives way to the harsh hurricanes that hit New Orleans, yet the family does all that it can in these challenging times to try and stay together.

Huong works hard to make sure that they have food to eat and her boys have a roof over her head. She also takes time to write letters that she sends to her husband along with tapes to stay in touch and give him hope for an eventual journey to America to join them. Huong wants nothing more than to be reunited with her husband and to have her boys see their father as they grow up.

She is hopeful that he will be able to come, but as time passes, she is forced to realize that she might never have the chance to see her husband ever again. She struggles to accept this and the magnitude of the loss is almost unimaginable. Meanwhile, Binh and Tuan are her sons and are growing up without a father, just as their mother feared. Still, they grow in his shadow, in the shadow of Vietnam, in memories and the power of their imagination.

The boys must do what they can to accept the situation and continue to adapt to America. The family does what they can to move forward and each chooses their own unique path. They each adapt in their own way. Their mother decides that she is finally ready to start dating and immediately starts dating a car salesman that is also Vietnamese. He’s also just come to town.

At the same time, Binh takes on the more American name of Ben and decides that he is going to embrace more, from his sexuality to the country that he now calls home. His brother takes a bit of a different tack: Tuan joins a gang in town that is composed solely of Vietnamese kids like him. They’re all searching for acceptance, belonging, love, and identity in different ways.

Can the boys and their mother stay close as their worlds go in increasingly different directions? Can they come together, especially when New Orleans is hit by unimaginable disaster? Will their bonds stand the test of time, becoming stronger or slowly being weakened?

The story of what keeps us together as well as what has the power to pull us apart, this is a powerful and engaging book that you must check out!

Get a copy of Things We Lost to the Water today!