by Joey Bui
More than ten years ago, when he had tested into Tiểu Văn Bình, the selective politics school in Sài Gòn, Chị Hai saved money from selling pressed coconut pancakes and took him to eat phở to celebrate. When he then failed the health test because he was five kilos underweight and couldn’t enrol, she wept so inconsolably that he kicked the tower of cosmetics she had arranged in a corner to sell out of the apartment.
He looked at her now and thought that if he didn’t love her, there would be so little to care for in his life. He knew it would be dumb and childish, but he desperately needed an answer.
‘Chị Hai, do you think something good is going to happen?’ She reached out for Bình’s hand and held it between her own two hands. Her grip wasn’t as firm as it used to be. Her eyes were shining, her lips twisted in anguish, and Bình felt a rush of love for his sister, who understood how scared and sad he was, and who would carry all of it with her.
To the Literature Department at New York University Abu Dhabi, especially my mentor Deborah Williams, who asked me the important questions; John Coughlin, who always inexplicably believed in me; Bryan Waterman, for making lit cool from day one; Werner Sollors, for making me feel heard; and Jim Savio, who wouldn’t let me give up.
To my family for telling me stories. For the hardships they went through so that I could be here and know this language and create this book. Especially Mum, for answering emergency phone calls about what materials were used to make buckets for carrying water from wells in 1960s rural Vietnam, and for everything.
Cho gia đình thân yêu của Duyên. Vì những khổ cực mà gia đình phải vượt qua để Duyên có ngày hôm nay, để Duyên biết Tiếng Anh, và để Duyên hoàn thành cuốn sách này. Hơn ai hết, Duyên biết ơn mẹ, vì mẹ đã trả lời bao cuộc gọi khẩn của Duyên về vật liệu làm thùng xách nước giếng ở miền quê Việt Nam hồi những năm 60, và vì tất cả.
To my friends, my inner circle, who read this book in its earliest form as copies that were sewn together by hand.
To the Text Publishing team for making my dream come true. To my editor Penny Hueston for her wisdom and patience in improving my writing. To Jamila, Kate, Shalini, and Jess for their wonderful work.
To Bram Presser, for giving me a lucky ticket to this book.
Joey Bui is a Vietnamese-Australian writer. She graduated from New York University Abu Dhabi, where she completed her first collection of short stories, Lucky Ticket, based on interviews with Vietnamese refugees around the world. Joey has been published in journals and magazines in the US and Australia. She is currently studying at Harvard Law School.
‘Filled with distinctive characters and full of surprises, these stories are enlightening and unforgettable.’
ALICE PUNG
‘An exciting, profound and often funny dive into the minor cataclysms of everyday life. Joey Bui is a marvel.’
BRAM PRESSER
‘Joey Bui writes with a rare emotional acuity. Although her characters inhabit very different lives, her stories are linked by a searching quality, and by the assured clarity of her prose. Lucky Ticket is meticulously observed and distinctly contemporary.’
JENNIFER DOWN
‘After reading this devastatingly great collection— imbued with equal parts pain and humour, suffering and the sublime—I want to recommend it to not just my Vietnamese or Asian-Australian friends, but anyone who reads.’
BENJAMIN LAW
‘Joey Bui is a masterful storyteller. The stories in Lucky Ticket are so diverse in setting and voice, it’s hard to believe they were all written by the same person. Each tale is delightfully rich with detail and yet reverberates with a broader truth. When the book finished, I was sad to leave its pages but heartened to know that such a collection exists in the world. These unforgettable characters and stories will keep me company for a gloriously long time.’
MELANIE CHENG
‘A feast of stories—deliciously varied, speaking true, speaking fierce, from every margin, about what it means to be a part of life.’
TISHANI DOSHI
Author of Small Days and Nights
‘Bui’s sentences range over people and land battered by war and movement. They tell you how and why people long and love like wild things. They tell you hustlers bide their time, dreamers too. Importantly, they tell you Bui’s got game.’
DEEPAK UNNIKRISHNAN
Author of Temporary People, winner of the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing
‘The ways in which [the stories] delve into the indignity of poverty call to mind Jenny Zhang, while the astute racial, gender and class commentary would appeal to readers of Julia Koh, Melanie Cheng and Rosanna Gonsalves.’
BOOKS+PUBLISHING
‘Fanfare will herald this debut by a thrilling new writer—and rightly so. These stories are finely crafted, Bui’s light touch revealing both confidence and a keen sense for the right measure of mystery. Her characters inhabit margins and she takes readers deep into lives that are exquisitely unique, yet startlingly universal. Perhaps the most exciting story here is that of Joey Bui’s bright career ahead. What a start! So now let there be fireworks, and let her render them for us in her inimitable way.’
MIGUEL SYJUCO
Author of Ilustrado, winner of the Man Asian Literary Prize
textpublishing.com.au
The Text Publishing Company
Swann House, 22 William Street, Melbourne Victoria 3000, Australia
Copyright © 2019 Joey Bui
The moral right of Joey Bui to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright above, no part of this publication shall be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.
First published in 2019 by The Text Publishing Company
Book design by Jessica Horrocks
Cover images by Michael Burrell/Alamy Stock Photo and iStock
Typeset by J&M Typesetting
ISBN: 9781922268020 (paperback)
ISBN: 9781925774795 (ebook)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia
