Lyrical and honest, A Two-Placed Heart is a fictionalized novel-in-verse about author Doan Phuong Nguyen's childhood, offering a window into the life of a Vietnamese immigrant struggling to adapt to life in the United States.
It's 1996, and Bom and her family live in a double-wide trailer in Nashville. Bom's younger sister is forgetting their life in Vietnam, so Bom determinedly writes their family story. The 12-year-old sits down at her father's typewriter and poetry--about their family history, time in Vietnam, Bom's struggles with ESL classes and school bullies--pours out onto the pages. Are her words enough to help her sister remember?
Nguyen (Mèo and Bé) doesn't shy away from the harsher details of reality, laying bare histories of political upheaval, starvation, lost children, and death, including harrowing reflections about whether fish in a specific creek are "the ones who ate" her murdered grandfather. But Nguyen's love for her homeland and her (slightly fictionalized) family shine through every poem. Immersive details bring the book's Vietnam sections to life, with particular care given to mouthwatering descriptions of foods that are likely to leave readers pleasantly hungry. Though the narrative ends abruptly amid Bom's struggles with her heritage, an epilogue allows a slightly older Bom to embrace who and what she is: "Việt Kiều,/ refugees,/ immigrants,/ not fully Vietnamese or American,/ a blend of the two." Fans of novels-in-verse like Jane Kuo's In The Beautiful Country or Jasminne Mendez's Aniana del Mar Jumps In should add A Two-Placed Heart to their reading lists. --Nicole Brinkley, bookseller and writer