SILENT ECHOES: THE LINGERING VOICES OF WAR IN THE NARRATIVE OF WANDERING SOULS BY CECILE PIN

Abstract

Cecile Pin's Wandering Souls (2023) is a moving novel that examines war, trauma, and identity through the prism of forced migration. The novel tracks a Vietnamese family who leaves their war-torn country in the wake of the Vietnam War, only to encounter further displacement, loss, and survival struggles in the UK. Pin's narrative masterfully interlaces historical trauma with individual loss, exploring the lasting psychological and emotional impact of war on individuals and families. One of the major themes in the novel is the effect of intergenerational trauma, whereby the characters wrestle with what has happened previously while trying to create a new identity in another country. Pin uses a fractured narrative and multiple views to bring forward the haunting effects of identity crisis and show how what has happened will continue to condition the characters' current experiences. The haunting voice of the oldest brother, who dies at sea, is both a narrative tool and a symbol of untold mourning, echoing the long-term impact of war and forced migration. The novel also questions the crossroads of trauma and resilience, showing how survivors seek to regain agency in the midst of loss. By using evocative language and close-up narrative, Pin subverts prevailing discourses of migration, highlighting the psychological and personal costs that usually follow displacement. Wandering Souls is ultimately a meditation on memory as both pain and survival and how stories of war and migration still resonate across generations. This research places Pin's novel within the wider cultural conversation regarding war literature, trauma theory, and traces how Wandering Souls extends knowledge of the refugee experience and remembrance complexity in postcolonial settings.