This is a fascinating novel; although it presents as a murder mystery, that turns out to be the smallest part of this absorbing and thoughtful novel. This will appeal to many readers who’ve never touched a crime novel, even if they’ve still no interest in doing so.

In 1996 Cabramatta, Sydney, is a dangerous place. A heroin epidemic has taken hold, and a crime wave followed: if it’s not junkies looking to fund their habit, it’s the gangs wanting to fund their illicit lifestyle.

But to Kye Tran and her family, it’s just home. When her parents ask her advice about allowing her younger brother Denny to go to a dinner after his high school graduation, she impatiently tells them to let him go. He’s a good kid, it’s a local restaurant, what could possibly happen?

The worst thing possible: Denny is beaten to death. When Kye returns for his funeral she is incredulous to discover that it occurred in a crowded restaurant, and yet no-one saw anything. Astonishingly, everyone was in the bathroom, the kitchen, or facing the wall. Kye can’t believe it, and sets out to find the truth of what happened.

It’s interesting that all the blurbs I’ve seen for this focus on the murder, as to me this is barely a murder mystery. Although that’s there, this novel to me was primarily about the refugee experience, intergenerational trauma, and racism in Australia. The murder was almost peripheral, compared to these things.

This is a thoughtful exploration of growing up the child of refugees in an Australia that’s ill equipped to recognise or support the trauma of the adults, or welcome the children caught between two worlds. It’s a sad indictment of both our society and many individuals in it. I was particularly struck by the depiction of a teacher who means very well, tries hard, and yet still fails her students. Her genuine attempts struck a chord: trying to do the right thing but not really knowing what it is or how to do it. Lien seems to be depicting this as the best refugees can expect: well meaning but clumsy and ineffective attempts to help.

Because Cabramatta was, at the time, full of Vietnamese refugees, it was teeming with people who’d experienced similar traumas but were dealing with them very differently. Lien explores this from a few angles: parents and children doing badly, others coping, others coming closer to thriving. For none of them is life straightforward or easy. This is sad but realistic, and I feel privileged that the novel has helped me understand some things a little better: the experience of everyday racism that’s so ingrained and reflexive it’s almost impossible to call out, for example.

This is a powerful novel, with insights that should make you think about Australian society generally and your own attitudes. I recommend it highly. Crime readers will no doubt find the slow exposure of what happened to Denny and why absorbing. However, anyone interested in explorations of human nature, Australian culture, the refugee experience in Australia – particularly after the Vietnamese war – or character based stories will find this meaty and satisfying.

I don’t feel right saying I enjoyed it, because it’s not a fun story. However, it’s an extremely satisfying reading experience. Although it’s fairly dark, it’s not without hope. The characters are vivid and (mostly) empathetic, and it’s extremely well written. If you’re open to having your preconceptions challenged, read it. I don’t think you’ll regret it.

Ky Tran grew up in a Vietmanese family in Cabramatta in western Sydney. She moved to Melbourne to become a journalist and has now returned home for her younger brother Denny’s funeral. He was out at a restaurant celebrating his graduation from high school with two of his friends and a favourite teacher when he was brutally murdered. Neither his family nor the police knows what happened or who killed him as no one who was in the restaurant that night will say anything. His teacher and friends claimed to be in the toilet, the staff all claimed to be in the kitchens and the other diners all turned away when the trouble started. However, Ky is sure someone knows something and she intends to use her journalistic skills to find out why her brother was killed and give her grieving parents some answers.

Much of the early part of the book is setting the background leading up to the murder, describing what it was like for Ky and Denny growing up in a tightly knit migrant community, where they felt constrained by their parents high expectations for them. Cabramatta in the 1990s was well known as a place where drugs could be freely bought and sold, contributing to high rates of drug related crime. Not all immigrant children were like Ky and Denny, aiming for a good education to pave their way to a high paying job. Some like Ky’s friend Minnie would be drawn to the kids who dropped out of school and were pulled into Cabramatta’s seamy underworld.

This is not an easy book to read, as it’s very much a social history of a migrant population, torn from its war torn country and transplanted to a land where they find it difficult to learn the language and assimilate into a totally different culture. In addition to poverty, many parents suffer from the long lasting effects of trauma and mental illness, all of which impacts on the next generation. While Denny’s murder is shocking and the reasons he was senselessly murdered heart-wrenchingly sad, it is not so much the main theme of the book but more a consequence of the time and place in which he lived.

Ky Tran, 22 year old journalist in Melbourne, returns home to Cabramatta for the funeral of her 17 year old brother, Denny. He was at a graduation after party at the Lucky 8 restaurant when he was beaten to death. Although there were about 17 diners present and 3-4 staff, no one saw anything or knows anything.

Ky doesn’t understand why her parents refused an autopsy (I didn’t think you could refuse one for a murder) and don’t have a copy of any report from the police. Ky wheedles a report and witness list from a police officer arguing that she is Vietnamese and from the community and people may be more inclined to talk to her than the police.

The book started very slowly and there seemed to be an awful of detail that just wasn’t necessary. After about 30% the book got a lot better. It was not just about Denny’s murder although Ky does find out what happened. It was also very much about how migrants, particularly the Vietnamese in this case, integrated or not into the broader Australian community. The young people often felt torn between the old customs and expectations of parents who were generally very strict and being able to fit in with white Australians and make new friends in their age group.

This book didn’t really grab me. I thought the perceived racism was overstated. I know it exists, my parents were migrants too, although they came from Europe, but I just thought the Vietnamese parents were portrayed in a somewhat derogatory way. That’s just my perception. Ky came across as a bit of a ‘victim’ who felt hard done by her parents and her best friend who went off the rails in year 10. She felt as if everyone expected her to be perfect, and that same expectation was on her brother’s shoulders. He may not have been the “good boy” the parents claimed, buckling under the pressure to be perfect. I don’t know.

It was a different sort of story for me but it was not really one I enjoyed that much. I think the author has talent but it’s just not my jam. Many thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin Australia for the much appreciated arc which I reviewed voluntarily and honestly.

An interesting and often heart breaking book but do not be fooled into shelving it as a mystery. Rather it is a social documentary about refugee immigrants living in the community of Cabramatta, in Sydney, as it was thirty years ago.

Ky Tran's parents are such refugees and Ky has managed, against many obstacles, to do well at school and find herself a job far away from home in Melbourne. Then she discovers her young brother has been murdered and returns home to find that no one is prepared to admit to being a witness of the event. This is the mystery which Ky struggles to solve, but it is a very small part of the overall story.

Much more time is given to social commentary and people's back stories which go towards explaining their actions. It is all cold, hard truth but there was a lot of it and eventually it became overwhelming, for me anyway. The ending was an anti climax but there was probably no better way to conclude events realistically.

So I guess I would judge this to be a good book but with a few personal reservations. It is certainly worth reading.

Oh bittersweet, why did I put off reading this for so long? I think the words "brutal murder" put me off, I was looking for something more lighthearted - but oh, I read it in one sitting.

Ky's brother Denny was murdered on the night of his school formal at the Lucky 8 restaurant. Plenty of people were there on the night, in 1990s Cabramatta, but the local Vietnamese community don't want to talk about it. Ky's own mother doesn't want to know. Knowing can't bring Denny back.

But Ky wants answers, so she asks questions, leveraging her Vietnamese heritage while remembering her time growing up in Cabra with all the children of refugees and how this experience has shaped her and her choices and shaped those around her, including her own parents who came to Sydney for a Better Life.

Through Ky's story & her grief, I better understand my own Vietnamese-Australian friends and their family dynamics

I really had a hard time with this book and I thought I would love it, for me it had quite a YA vibe which is not normally something I enjoy.
Unfortunately I think it was the style that didn’t gel with me, not so much the story line.
I had such a hard time with the voice of Minnie who was Ky’s childhood friend, talking to Ky. There is also a lot of switching of time frames, that I found hard to follow.
Maybe I’m just not the right reader for this book
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy to read.

The insight into Vietnamese refugee life in the Sydney suburb of Cabramatta was interesting and compelling but sadly the story line did not keep me engaged.

Ky Tran, a young Vietnamese-Australian journalist returns home following the death of her brother, Denny, in a local restaurant. Everyone present at the scene claim to have seen nothing.

Ky feels the police are not doing enough to discover what happened to her brother and beings interviewing the patrons that were present.

Her investigation leads to Ky examining her own memories, background and relationships.

It is more than a mystery story. In fact, the mystery of Ky’s brother’s death often falls into the background and secondary to the struggles of family relationships, fitting into a new world and the setting making it slow reading.

It is reasonably well written but needs to be tighter and the characters need to be more relatable

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of the book in return for an honest review

A gripping, emotionally-relentless story about Ky, a Vietnamese-Australian woman, who comes home to her parents in Cabramatta after her brother Denny is beaten to death in a restaurant celebrating his graduation. Ky, struggling to process her grief and guilt, takes leave from her job as a journalist and plunges into investigating her brother's death, and why no-one at the restaurant witnessed anything.

Ky and her parents' grief is so raw and difficult to read, it is beautifully done. While my brief blurb makes this sound like a murder mystery, it's not particularly. The question of how Denny died is what the story is strung around, but it is not the heart of the book - which instead delves into Ky's family and their community's experiences after their arrival in Australia, and how this affects the trajectory of their lives.

This was an emotional story about what it's like for the Vietnamese refugees who had settled in Australia. Ky, a young woman who had moved from Cabramatta to Melbourne for study/work, returns home after the murder of her younger brother Denny, on his year 12 graduation night. Ky wants to get to the bottom of what happened to Denny but no one is opening up. Slowly Ky works out what happened to Denny and why.
Much of the story was told from Ky's point of view, but we also got the POVs of others who were at the restaurant when Denny was killed. I enjoyed these view points also as they added more to the story about why people weren't being honest. There was a big focus on relationships and what's it was like for Vietnamese people in Cabramatta during the heroin pandemic.
It gave me a greater appreciation for how hard it is for immigrants trying to make a better life for themselves and the pressure they were under.

REVIEW: It's taken me weeks to write this review, partially because I've been travelling, but mainly because I struggled to gather my feelings about this upcoming debut.

Set in the late '90s in Sydney's Cabramatta suburb, All That's Left Unsaid follows Ky, who's struggling in the aftermath of her brother's dead. Out at an Asian restaurant celebrating his high school graduation, Denny, a straight A student, is bashed to death. The way he dies is shocking, but what Ky can't understand is why none of the other patrons there that night are willing to tell the police what they saw, what they know.

As Ky decides to dig in and try and understand what happened that night, she learns more about the Vietnamese community she's part of, including what went wrong in her friendship with her best friend from school.

This is an ARC I requested—rare for me!—because I really loved the synopsis I read. It's got the pacey feel of a thriller with the mix of race, identity, and assimilation, all topics I love in my reading.

So it was a surprise to me that I didn't love this book and I'm even more annoyed that I'm unsure why. There were a few sub-plots that I thought either received too much attention or too little. Ky's friendship with her childhood friend ended up taking centre stage and the imaginary conversations with her were a bit much. I would've preferred that focus be on the family drama instead.

One part that I do think Lien captured beautifully was the sense of us vs them. It's easy to wonder, "How is it that no one would speak up about what they saw?" But in reality, for marginalised communities, what good does inviting the police in do? If justice won't truly be served, might it not be better for people to deal with it in their own way?

This is a strong debut and I wish I'd connected with it more, but I think rather than a reflection of the content, it was a case of the right book at wrong time. I look forward to seeing what Lien writes next. Thanks to @harpercollinsaustralia and @netgalley for my advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. All That's Left Unsaid is out 30 Aug.

Firstly thank you once again to @Netgalley for the copy of this great book.
As someone who lives in Sydney and understands the cultural divides in various parts of Sydney, it was so interesting to read a story from the perspective of the Vietnamese community of Cabramatta. Clearly I’ve lived quite a sheltered life! I really enjoyed this book and the perceptions of law enforcement and cultural expectations amongst family and friends. The story moves along smoothly and it’s an easy read, easy to lose yourself in the plot. Perfectly engaging and strangely not to “heavy” even though the premise of the book is a heavy topic. Would definitely recommend to my little readers circle.

‘Just let him go.’ ‘Those are words Ky Tran will ever regret.’

Cabramatta, Sydney. A brutal bashing at a Vietnamese restaurant leaves teenager Denny Tran dead. Ky Tran returns home to attend her brother’s funeral and tries to find out what happened to her gentle, studious brother. It seems that no one witnessed Denny’s murder even though the restaurant was busy. Ky approaches the police for answers but finds that they are overwhelmed by gang-related crime and drugs. However, Ky obtains a list of names of those who were in the restaurant and embarks on her own investigation.
Ky is staying with her parents and has to negotiate their expectations of her as a daughter as well as their shared grief over the loss of their son. Her father is near paralysed with grief, while her mother tries to control Ky.

Ms Lien’s novel plunges the reader into Cabramatta during the 1990s when Cabramatta was a hub for drug gangs. In order to find answers, Ky has to return to a world she thought that she had left behind. Ky is sure that her brother would not have been involved with either gangs or drugs, yet others are telling her that Denny was not as innocent as she thought. What is the truth?

‘Everyone thinks that because we are all refugees and we all came from the same country that we should be friends.’

As Ky searches for answers, we are taken into a world where the (then recent) Vietnamese refugees are trying to adapt to life in Australia while dealing with their own past trauma. While language is an issue for many, differing cultural values make settlement more challenging. Drugs, disillusion, an overwhelmed and at times disinterested police force all make Cabramatta unsafe and Ky’s search more difficult.

The story unfolds, alternating between Ky’s voice and those of the witnesses. This is a deeply uncomfortable journey for Ky as she tries to negotiate the obligations and ties of friendship, family and community.

This is Ms Lien’s debut novel, and she makes both Cabramatta of the 1990s and the challenges faced by the Tran family real. At almost every turn, Ky faces cultural issues including perceptions of the Vietnamese community and her parents’ expectations coloured by grief.

A terrific read!

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Australia HQ for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

What a fabulous debut novel. The author gives a real insight into growing up in Australia as a Vietnamese immigrant and the challenges faced. Extremely relatable and beautifully written. Tugs at the heartstrings.

It’s the 1990s in Cabramatta, Sydney Australia. A brutal bashing occurs leaving a studious and gentle teenage boy dead. Ky returns to attend her brother’s funeral. Here she faces the reality that crime, gangs and drugs rule the streets and the police are not trusted. There are no witnesses to the crime despite occurring in a busy restaurant. Ky is desperate to find out what happened to her brother, Denny. But in the process, she needs to face the traumas of her past, reconnect with the community she left behind and navigate the social stigmas and discrimination.

As a daughter of Vietnamese refugees, I grew up in Sydney and was a teen in the 90s. Our family lived in the inner west (~40 km away from where the book was set). We would go to Cabramatta occasionally to visit my parents’ friends who lived there. I recall the stigma when I told my friends where I was going. Cabramatta in those days was notorious for gangs, crime, home invasions and drugs.

After reading this book, I felt so naive. My upbringing was starkly differently to those described in the book, I had no idea that those I knew lived those experiences. I could understand the struggles and cultural values that were mentioned.


The author transported me back to my memories of the area with her vivid and accurate descriptions in her scene setting. It was realistic, honest and beautifully written. This type of stuff did happen, she wasn't exaggerating.

The book is so much more than just about the murder. It touches on the plight of refugees; the trauma of their past, the complexity with adapting and resettling, and the hardships with balancing their cultural values with the values of their adopted country.

This powerful book left me wanting to embrace and reconnect with my cultural heritage and not forget what my parents went through to get me to where I am today. It is surreal for once, to read a book that aligns so closely with something that I can personally understand and relate to.

<b>All That's Left Unsaid</b> is Tracey Lien's debut novel.   By the end I had come to appreciate, probably even like, this book but at first I found it utterly depressing.    I couldn't come to terms with the characters who all seemed unlikeable and I found I couldn't relate to them at all.   Yet, I think that was the point of the book.   The author gradually opened my eyes to the reasons characters behaved the way they did.     Helped me appreciate the difficulties of being a refugee in Australia, the so-called Lucky Country.   Helped me understand the massive cultural differences which made full assimilation into their new homeland so unlikely.   Helped me join the dots about the impacts of war and loss, and the propensity for alcoholism, drug use, and violence.

The blurb had me feeling compelled to read this book about the homicide of Denny a sixteen year old boy.   Killed in a busy restaurant where he was celebrating being valedictorian of his class.    Dressed in his suit and dining with friends and one of their favourite teachers, he was beaten to death.    Yet not one single person admitted to having seen anything.      The police were baffled but their investigations were futile so Denny's older sister Ky, a Melbourne based journallist, was determined to find out what really happened and why.


This is very much a case of walking a mile in another person's shoes to understand attitudes and mindsets.    It seemed that even those who thought they knew Denny best began to question his good boy, perfect reputation.     There was a layer of stigma that sat over everything and everyone in Cabramatta.     The idea that every Asian boy was part of a gang, was selling or using drugs was just accepted.  So if someone was unexpectedly beaten to death the temptation was to believe the victim, no matter how innocent, must somehow have been involved with the criminal element as opposed to an innocent in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Alternating perspectives were offered helping readers (this reader at least) have their blinkers removed.    Every one of those witnesses who denied seeing anything had their reasons and as we learnt of their back stories, their inner emotions, even their  justifications I gradually opened my mind and heart to their plights.     I'm not suggesting that I condone gangs or drug use - far from it - but somehow everything which had seemed so unfathomable to me began to make more sense by books end.
As an example, the 5T gang, named for five Vietnamese words beginning with T which essentially translated to Childhood without Love.     An incredibly sad reality for many in the book and by all accounts in the real life Cabramatta of the 90's.    Other factors such as the astronomical pressure to succeed that many Asian families put upon their children.    The children themselves not wanting to do wrong by families who have given up everything in their homelands, coming to Australia as refugees, not being able to speak the language or to assimilate.    Parents who were unable to forget the traumas of the war and by association distrusting the Australian police expecting them to be as ruthless and dishonest as those they encountered in their homeland.

I could go on but should stop and leave something for readers to uncover on their own.   In summary, having written my review I think I rate it more highly than I expected to at first.    It's not an uplifting story, nor did I think of it as a mystery in the traditional sense but it is, I think, a unique and important tale which casts a light on a community whose reputation became tainted but which none-the-less is part of Australia's recent history.

My thanks and congratulations to the author, to Harper Collins and NetGalley for the opportunity of reading this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This debut novel by Tracey Lien is difficult for me to categorise. I wouldn’t call it a murder mystery although that is the core event around which the story revolves.
Ky Tran is a young Vietnamese Australian woman working as a journalist in Melbourne when she is called back to the family home in Cabramatta, suburban Sydney after her younger brother is killed while at a School Grad dinner in a local Asian Restaurant. The other diners and employees all claim to have seen nothing and the police don’t seem to be actively pursuing justice.
Ky wants answers and interviews those present, gradually drawing out the details of what really happened. But for me the themes of love, duty, friendship, regret and forgiveness are the meat in the murder sandwich. The authentic settings, historical background and complicated back story and relationships of the characters are detailed and vivid.
Reading about Ky’s parents and their struggles to fit in, survive and parent effectively in a totally different environment, the next generation’s struggles against racism (intentional or not),high expectations and the temptation to cross to the “naughty” side, and the dedicated teacher’s self examination of her biases and motivations, is moving and disturbing.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Ky and Minnie were typical children of refugee parents; immigrants from Vietnam. Growing up in Cabramatta but never really feeling accepted by the white girls in school. Ky and Denny learned to stay out of people’s way and work hard. Minnie was tough and threatening so others generally left them alone.

Ky is now a successful reporter in Melbourne. Denny has won the “Most Likely to Succeed” Award and with his friend, Eddie, had gone to Lucky 8, seafood restaurant, for their high school formal. In a busy restaurant, Denny is stomped to death. No one has seen anything and Police don’t appear to have any leads.

A unique mystery murder that takes you into the world of children growing up with refugee parents and the issues that assist in changing their lives. A book I did not won’t want to stop reading.

An unforgettable read, so much more than just a murder mystery. Compelling with great depth. Five stars.

This is definitely a must read book. It was well written and despite a slow start, it was very hard to put down. I was intrigued by the title ‘All that’s left unsaid” instead of the expected “all is said and done”. On the surface it is a murder mystery where Ky Tran tries to find out who brutally murdered her brother. She talks to the witnesses who are not saying anything to the police. She wants to find out what is being left unsaid to find the murderer

But it is so much more. As she speaks to people to solve the murder she uncovers the complex unseen issues that people are dealing with. So much so that it is easier to say “I dunno” than to put something into words. She gives special insight into the struggles of refugees who have come to Australia with hopes and dreams that are unfulfilled as people don’t understand them. How easy it is to misunderstand people by assuming and not asking to know more. She also deals with obvious child abuse and drug use which is left unsaid.

I was very challenged as she gives examples of miscommunication between whites and refugees. I had to ask myself what have I left unsaid, what did I assume and not ask? What impact has that had on others? More importantly, what can I do in future?

I may be showing my age, but I found the bad language quite offensive. I understand that it was realistic of the dialogue at that time, but it was quite off putting especially as it got worse in the final chapters. But by then I had to keep going to find out what happened.

All That’s Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien is this author’s debut novel. The story is based in the Sydney suburb of Cabramatta. This suburb has a large contingent of European and South East Asian immigrants – particularly from Vietnam. As an aside, of the twenty thousand or more who live in Cabramatta, over forty percent identify as Buddhists.

 This story involves a young Vietnamese Australian woman called Ky who returns home to Cabramatta from her job a journalist in Melbourne following the murder of her younger brother Denny. Denny was beaten to death in a popular Vietnamese restaurant called Lucky 8, there were numerous people in the restaurant that night, but no-one saw anything. Ky is surprised to discover the police didn’t order an autopsy and haven’t identified any suspects, despite the murder occurring in such a public place. She goes about attempting find the killer/s.

 Was Denny – who was a high achieving senior school student and a good boy – involved in the gangland drug scene, or was he just in the wrong place at the wrong time?

 This book is far more than a murder mystery, it’s also a glimpse into the lives of Vietnamese immigrants, who came over to Australia in large numbers following the Vietnam War. As Ky interviews various people in the local community the reader will learn some of the challenges and issues this community have needed to navigate in a country that used to openly employ a ‘White Australia’ policy. I found the interaction between Ky and her parents particularly interesting, as her parents had their heads and hearts very much in Vietnam, and the juxtaposition Ky needed to navigate between her parent’s ‘old ways and the expectations of living in a bustling city like Sydney was challenging.

 I enjoyed the murder/mystery aspect of this story, but I found the narrative of this immigrant enclave far more fascinating. However, I found it a little distracting the way the author frequently switched from ‘murder investigation mode’ to ‘SE Asian immigrant mode’ - the latter usually involving flashbacks.

 Having said that, this is a sound effort and for those who have an interest in a different type of murder/mystery this might very well be right down your alley.