all that's left in the world book review

‘She took the first transfer available, to a metropolitan school, in a suburb with a name that she thought sounded Italian. This review is heavy on the quotes because they speak best for what this novel is about, the tone, the subject matter, and the piercing writing style of Tracey Lien, which I loved from the outset. All I could think while reading this novel is that we are still beating the same drum, almost thirty years on, just about a different set of refugees, and you can substitute terrorism for heroin as the justification for it. Set in 1996, in a time and place that I remember quite clearly, when heroin deaths and drug related home invasions headlined the news nightly and a red-haired chip shop woman with a big mouth launched her hate filled political platform that to this day, is still shamefully going strong. This was such a brilliant and insightful novel, written with a barely suppressed anger that is both justified and understandable.

Published by HarperCollins Publishers Australia – HQ Fiction Combining evocative family drama and gripping suspense, All That’s Left Unsaid is both a study of the effects of inherited trauma and social discrimination, and a compulsively readable literary thriller that expertly holds the reader in its grip until the final page. Tracey Lien’s extraordinary debut is at once heart-pounding and heart-rending as it pulls apart the intricate bonds of friendship, family, culture and community that produced a devastating crime. With each encounter, she peels away another layer of the place that shaped her and Denny, exposing the trauma and seeds of violence that were planted well before that fateful celebration dinner: by colonialism, by the war in Vietnam, and by the choices they’ve all made to survive. Returning home for the funeral, Ky learns that the police are stumped by her brother’s case: several people were at Lucky 8 restaurant when Denny died, but each of the bystanders claim to have seen nothing.Īs an antidote to grief and guilt, Ky is determined to track down the witnesses herself.

That night in 1996, Denny – optimistic, guileless, brilliant Denny – is brutally murdered inside a busy restaurant in Cabramatta, a Sydney suburb facing violent crime, an indifferent police force, and the worst heroin epidemic in Australian history.

The words she spoke when her parents called to ask if they should let her younger brother Denny out to celebrate his high school graduation. ‘Just let him go.’ Those are words Ky Tran will forever regret. There were a dozen witnesses to Denny Tran’s brutal murder in a busy Sydney restaurant.

All that's left in the world book review