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BABEL: Viet Thanh Nguyen Categories: Official JB Events Timelines: 1b: Past Events (Unseen Archive), 2: BABEL Archive, Just Buffalo History (2010s)

Viet Thanh Nguyen - BABEL - Just Buffalo Literary Center - Buffalo, NY

Photos from the Viet Thanh Nguyen BABEL by Nancy Parisi

Where:
Kleinhans Music Hall
3 Symphony Circle
Buffalo, NY 14201
Date: Friday, March 23, 2018
Time: 8:00 p.m.
Patron VIP Reception: 7:00 p.m.

About the Author
On Friday, March 23rd, we will continue to think about how Buffalo is the city of good neighbors when we welcome Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen.

Born in Vietnam, Nguyen came to the United States as a refugee at the age of four. The feeling of being an outsider or “other” defines Nguyen’s writing.

Buffalo has a proud record of welcoming refugee families. Nguyen’s latest book, The Refugees, is a beautiful collection of short stories which explores universal and urgent themes of love and family, the histories we hold within us and the people “we can’t afford to forget.”

(Photograph of Viet Thanh Nguyen courtesy of The Tuesday Agency)

About the Book
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Viet Thanh Nguyen - The Refugees - BABEL - Just Buffalo Literary Center - Buffalo, NY

Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer was one of the most widely and highly praised novels of 2015, the winner not only of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, but also the Center for Fiction Debut Novel Prize, the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, the ALA Carnegie Medal for Fiction, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and the California Book Award for First Fiction. Nguyen’s next fiction book, The Refugees, is a collection of perfectly formed stories written over a period of twenty years, exploring questions of immigration, identity, love, and family.

With the coruscating gaze that informed The Sympathizer, in The Refugees Viet Thanh Nguyen gives voice to lives led between two worlds, the adopted homeland and the country of birth. From a young Vietnamese refugee who suffers profound culture shock when he comes to live with two gay men in San Francisco, to a woman whose husband is suffering from dementia and starts to confuse her for a former lover, to a girl living in Ho Chi Minh City whose older half-sister comes back from America having seemingly accomplished everything she never will, the stories are a captivating testament to the dreams and hardships of immigration. The second piece of fiction by a major new voice in American letters, The Refugees is a beautifully written and sharply observed book about the aspirations of those who leave one country for another, and the relationships and desires for self-fulfillment that define our lives.

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Discussion Questions

Download the Reader’s Guide for The Refugees (provided by LitLovers).

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Buy Tickets

Single event tickets are good for one BABEL event at Kleinhans for the 2017-2018 season. VIP Patron Tickets include preferred seating and access to a pre-event catered reception at Kleinhans, attended by the author of the evening. After each event, all ticket holders enjoy an interview-style Q&A moderated by Artistic Director Barbara Cole, and may have their books signed by the author.

  • General Admission: $35
  • General Admission (Student Discount): $10
  • General Admission (Library Card Discount): $30
  • VIP Patron: *SOLD OUT*

Get Viet Thanh Nguyen BABEL Tickets

Buy 2017–2018 Season Tickets

Season Subscription tickets are good for all four of the BABEL events at Kleinhans for the 2017–2018 season. VIP Patron Tickets include preferred seating and access to a pre-event catered reception at Kleinhans, attended by the author of the evening. After each event, all ticket holders enjoy an interview-style Q&A moderated by Artistic Director Barbara Cole, and may have their books signed by the author.

  • General Admission (Single): $110
  • General Admission (Pair): $190
  • General Admission (3+): $95 each
  • VIP Patron (Single): *SOLD OUT*
  • VIP Patron (Pair): *SOLD OUT*

Buy BABEL Season Tickets