Today we interview Nguyen Phan Que Mai about her most recent novel, DUST CHILD. DUST CHILD is an International Bestseller. It has won numerous international awards. But, perhaps the most important award it’s the 2025 One Book One Lincoln selection. Linny knows how much Nancy likes the One Book, One Lincoln process. Nancy tells Linny that it is a big deal in Lincoln and she has many conversations with people around the city about what the finalists are and then, which book was selected. Then, all the book clubs run out and get the book. Basically, everyone reads and talks about the books. Dr. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is the author of thirteen books in Vietnamese and English. Her poetry in Vietnamese has been written into popular songs and has received top literary awards in Vietnam including the Poetry of the Year 2010 Award from the Hanoi Writers Association. Her writing in English include two global bestselling novels THE MOUNTAINS SING and DUST CHILD. She has been translated into more than twenty-five languages and has received the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award, the International Book Award, the BookBrowse Best Debut Award, the Lannan Literary Fellowship in Fiction as well as Runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from the UK’s Lancaster University. She was named by Forbes Việt Nam as one of 20 inspiring women of 2021 and recently by the Research House of Asia as one of Top 10 Female Novelists Shaping the Literary Scene in Southeast Asia. Quê’ Mai tells us she loves sisters and that’s why she created the sisters in the book. She says she is jealous of Nancy and Linny! Quê’ Mai said she grew up after the war in a lot of poverty, but they did have books. Books gave her a way to live a different life. But she was told that being a writer was dangerous and she couldn’t make a living doing it. She pursued a business career and was very successful, but she always wanted to go back to her childhood dream of becoming a writer. She did her Master’s in creative writing. So few stories have been written from the perspective of a Vietnamese native and that is the voice she wanted to bring to the world. She wrote her first book, but couldn’t find a buyer, so then she wrote DUST CHILD. It is somewhat based on the tearful reunions she witnessed when she was helping American GIs find their former girlfriends. Quê’ Mai is a poet and says that, in Vietnam, the culture is infused in poetry. She lived in Australian and Bangladesh for several years. When she and her husband returned to Vietnam, she would create poetry while riding on her motorbike. Soon, her poetry was being published and she also translated others’ poetry into English. Eventually, she decided to write a novel. Even though she only started learning English in 8th grade, she was determined to write it in English and capture the Vietnamese spirit. Linny tells Quê’ Mai that the book really opened her eyes up to what happened to the Vietnamese people during and after the war. She really appreciated seeing it all in the voice of the people. Quê’ Mai said she remembers hiding in bomb shelters as a very young child. Growing up, the country was scarred by bomb craters and the people were struggling, psychologically, with the war, too. It was haunting. Quê’ Mai especially wanted to write from the point of view of the women because they are the ones who have to caretake and keep families afloat economically. Wars destroy families, our souls, the fabric of society, and damage so much culture and nature. She is frightened that so many wars are still going on. Greedy men who just want to rule the world are still causing wars. Quê’ Mai notes that our lives are short and want us to live in peace. Linny and Nancy agree that DUST CHILD illustrates these concerns. Quê’ Mai said her work reconnecting GIs and their girlfriends, connected her with many bargirls. Rather than opportunistic or stupid or overly-sexualized, she found that they were wonderful women. These women who had to give up their children, never forgot those children. Quê’ Mai wanted to document their trauma and their love for their family and their willingness to do these jobs to support their families. Quê’ Mai wanted to create two different sisters because she has seen different types of women, all wonderful. Quê’ Mai tells us as she writes, the characters lead her to the destination they want to go. She was surprised by what happens to her characters. There is a spiritual element to it, for her. This, and her work translating for American veterans, helped her write in the voice of an American male. She also read a lot of memoirs by American soldiers. Quê’ Mai’s heart broke for Dan because when he came to Vietnam, he was a kind man, but the war damages him. Linny liked the character of Dan and his wife. She really loved the guide, Thiên, who didn’t let Dan off the hook! Quê’ Mai said she created Thiên to illustrate how ignorant many of the returning veterans were of the Vietnamese culture and had unrealistic expectations of what it would mean to find their former girlfriends. Quê’ Mai tells us that American vets are fairly privileged, particularly in relation to Vietnamese vets, because their trauma has been acknowledged and they receive benefits. Vietnamese vets are still thought of as traitors, by some. Quê’ Mai was nervous when DUST CHILD was translated into Vietnamese and published there, because of the character of Thiên. She has received many positive letters from Vietnamese vets who appreciated the book. This is in contract to a Vietnamese poet she met early in her poetry career who chastised her for writing in the voice of a Vietnamese soldier, as a young woman. This made her even more determined to write from the perspective of male soldiers. Quê’ Mai tells us her heart really ached when writing about Linda, Dan’s wife. Quê’ Mai said she feels that soldiers bring the war home to their wives. Linda has to overcome the terrible secrets and betrayal she faces. Quê’ Mai wanted to write about the ability to forgive and heal, even when that is the more difficult past. Quê’ Mai believes she is a very brave woman. She lets Dan and Linda build a relationship with the Vietnamese people they met because she has seen that happen. She thinks American people are very kind and loving. Nancy says she believes the book demonstrates the brutality of war, but it also shows how far people will go to protect the ones they love from the horrors they are facing. Quê’ Mai tells us she met an Amerasian child finally found his mom when he was in his fifties. She told him lots of stories that he later found out were lies. When he read DUST CHILD, he finally understood why his mom would have lied to him. She also told us about an Amerasian man living in America who told her he found his mom, also when he was in his 50s. His mom did not want to see him when he traveled to Vietnam. Finally, just before he was going to return to America, she agreed to see him for 30 minutes. The reason she didn’t want to see him is because he was the product of a rape. Quê’ Mai tells us that mixed-race people still face discrimination in Vietnam, especially those who are dark-skinned. They access to resources were very limited. Many don’t read or write or know how to deal with the basic requirements of modern life. Many were homeless. Some where abducted and used by strangers to get to America where they were then abandoned. She wanted to show Phong as more than a victim, so she made him an artist, rice farmer, musician, a husband, and a dad. She wanted to show his humanity, as well. Quê’ Mai tells us she had always dreamed of one of her books being selected for a citywide reading program. When she learned she had been selected for Lincoln’s, she told us she booked tickets for only a short stay because she knew no one. But she found a whole family in Lincoln and went to so many parties and receptions. She was interviewed on the radio. She loved the evening event at Lincoln High School. She thought Ryan, our library director, was so nice. She could not believe the Mayor was there and had already read DUST CHILD with her book club. It was a dream coming true. Quê’ Mai said she is hard at work on her next book, in part, because so many people in Lincoln told her she is invited back when she is on her book tour for that one! Quê’ Mai says reading can bring us together and is impressed by Lincoln’s long-running program. Quê’ Mai feels like she has found a big family through her readership who understand her beliefs. Linda tells Quê’ Mai that she loves her volunteering work, especially given Linny’s love of volunteering for the American Red Cross. Quê’ Mai tells us she is an ambassador for several organizations and is impressed by Linny’s work with the Red Cross. She says the Red Cross is doing amazing work. She says it is important to vote for leaders who love peace. She also has loved the opportunity to volunteer for peace-loving organizations. She is the Peace Ambassador for PeaceTrees Vietnam, an organization that works to remove unexploded bombs in Việt Nam and plant trees and build kindergartens and schools. PeaceTrees was founded by an American whose brother died in Vietnam and vowed to bring America and Vietnam together. They bring vets back to Vietnam where they volunteer to plant trees. She has seen, firsthand, how healing this is for these soldiers. She is a volunteer for Room to Read, a Vietnamese organization that sets up libraries in remote areas. She donated all the proceeds from the Vietnamese version of DUST CHILD. They have opened many libraries and filled them with books. Vietnam has experienced a lot of flooding, as it is very vulnerable to climate change. Room to Read also repairs and restores libraries damaged by these floods. Quê’ Mai is Ambassador for ShelterBox Bookclub, a UK charity book club which has raised £1 million to provide emergency shelter for families across the world after disasters. People pay a membership to get free books and discuss them. The membership proceeds are used to fund the emergency services, such as building homes and emergency relief. Quê’ Mai is also an Ambassador for the Danish-Vietnamese Association. She is raising funds for libraries in Vietnam. Years ago, Quê’ Mai started an organization that supports children with cancer who, some, have been in the hospital for years. Childhood cancer is very prevalent due to the use of Agent Orange during the war. They give the kids birthday parties and days out. Hospitals in Vietnam are not like American hospitals, she says. There are often three kids to a bed. These kids just want to experience a “normal day.” We take normal days for granted, not realizing how lucky we are. She thinks about the people in Ukraine and Palestine, too. She says she could not have written DUST CHILD without all her years of volunteer work. She said she has received a thousand-fold back from her volunteer work. Quê’ Mai is currently working on a book based on her childhood experiences and the resilience of Vietnamese people. And, the people fighting against banned books. She says the current trend of banned books is dangerous and she wants to fight against it. The book has gone out to her first readers and she is editing it. Julie Stevenson is her amazing agent. She has also been commissioned, by Walking Tree, to write a travel book set in Hanoi, the location of her first book. She can’t wait to welcome people to Hanoi through this book. Quê’ Mai thanks our listeners. She loves to connect with readers on Instagram and Facebook. Readers can send her messages. She tells us that she loves Lincoln and wants to come back. Quê’ Mai thanks listeners of Front Porch Book Club which she thinks is a great name, because she writes on her front porch! She says the interview was like was visiting with her best friends. She says DUST CHILD has been optioned for a film. The director is Vietnamese. Linny volunteers to be in the movie and could even play the role of Linda!