Owner of a Lonely Heart, Beth Nguyen
Owner of a Lonely Heart, Beth Nguyen
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Owner of a Lonely Heart
A Memoir

Author: Beth Nguyen

Narrator: Beth Nguyen

Unabridged: 5 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/04/2023


Synopsis

Named a Best Memoir of 2023 by Oprah Daily • Selected by Time, NPR, and BookPage as a Best Book of 2023

“This book…is what memoir writing in the hands of a caring, curious wunderkind can be.” —Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy

From the award-winning author of Stealing Buddha’s Dinner, a powerful memoir of a mother-daughter relationship fractured by war and resettlement.

At the end of the Vietnam War, when Beth Nguyen was eight months old, she and her family fled Saigon for America. Only Beth’s mother stayed—or was left—behind, and they did not meet again until Beth was nineteen. Over the course of her adult life, she and her mother have spent less than twenty-four hours together.

Owner of a Lonely Heart is “a portrait of things left unsaid” (The New York Times), a memoir about parenthood, absence, and the condition of being a refugee: the story of Beth’s relationship with her mother. Framed by a handful of visits over the course of many years—sometimes brief, sometimes interrupted, some alone with her mother and others with the company of her sister—Beth tells an “unforgettable” (People) coming-of-age story that spans her childhood in the Midwest, her first meeting with her mother, and her own experience of parenthood.

About Beth Nguyen

Beth Nguyen is the author of the recently published memoir Owner of a Lonely Heart, the memoir Stealing Buddha’s Dinner, and two novels. Her work has appeared in publications including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and Best American Essays. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for Nonfiction in 2024 and teaches creative writing at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Sharon on March 22, 2024

Poignant, raw, and illuminating. Beth Nguyen narrates her memoir, Owner of a Lonely Heart: A Memoir. I love it when an author narrates their work on audiobook. Nguyen was eight months old when her father, uncle, grandmother, and sister fled Vietnam and ended up in America. Nguyen's mother remained in......more

Goodreads review by Courtney on October 31, 2023

A memoir about belonging, family and overcoming. Although, there were moments of great insight and discovery, I found the whole memoir rather disjointed and often making parallels from one thought to the next was rather difficult. Thank Simon and Schuster for this complimentary review copy.......more

Goodreads review by Sandym24 on July 10, 2023

I have read and enjoyed all of the books Beth Nguyen has written but especially love her two memoirs. Owner of a Lonely Heart did not disappoint after loving Stealing Buddha’s Dinner so much. She mixes wonderful and poignant insights into the struggles of growing up as a refugee in Michigan with fun......more

Goodreads review by Judith on October 19, 2023

This is a memoir of a girl whose father flees Vietnam with her and her sister, in their infancy, moving to America. The mother stays behind and emigrates later. Meanwhile, the father divorces her and marries another, who becomes a capable and loving stepmother. When the mother finally comes to the S......more

Goodreads review by HippieWitch on July 19, 2023

Also enjoy reading about someone else life to see how different it is from mine. This was a good one. Wish there was more to it though. Felt like a lot of the story was on repeat, talking about the same things.......more