The Happiest Refugee

The mother of Anh, Khoa, and Tram, she fled Vietnam with her husband, their extended family, and her two oldest children when she was a young woman. She is a hard-working woman, always willing to sacrifice herself to provide her children with a better life. She is demanding, expecting hard work out of her children, though never more than she expects from herself. Despite the family’s difficult situation, she remains generous, opening her house and sharing what little she has with the less fortunate. Fiercely protective of her children, she makes the hard decision to cut her husband out of her life when he turns to drink and becomes abusive. She never accepts him back, even when her children reconcile with him. She eventually becomes a motivational speaker, and lives to see her two boys become professional successes. 

The father of Anh, Khoa, and Tram, he is one of the most complex figures in the book. An inventive and brash young man, he saves Hien from the communists and organizes the family’s flight from Vietnam at great risk to them all. In Australia, Anh idolizes his creative and bold father, looking up to him as he takes on elaborate business ventures and encourages his children to be ambitious. However, Tam has a darker side that is revealed when his business ventures fail. He turns to alcohol and begins abusing his older son, leading his wife to throw him out of the house. He does not re-enter the story until much later, when he is remarried, with a young son, and sick from a brain tumor. The slow process of his making amends with his family for his past behavior and coming to terms with the tragedies of his past forms a large part of the emotional climax of the book. 

Anh’s younger brother by two years, they have been close since childhood and attend school together. Khoa is brash, active, and always ready to help in Anh’s plans. The two eventually go into business together, making their first movie, which becomes critically acclaimed. While Anh becomes a comedian, Khoa becomes a successful screenwriter and wins the prominent Young Australian award. The one source of conflict between them is their father. While Anh is ready to reconcile with his father soon after he makes contact, Khoa is far more defensive of their mother and carries a lot of resentment towards his father. 

Tram is Anh and Khoa’s younger sister, born in Australia several years after they arrived. She is a shy, quiet girl who is mostly in the background of the story. Embarrassed by her crooked teeth, she does not smile much. One of Anh’s priorities when he becomes successful is to pay to get her braces. At the end of the book, she is happily married with a son of her own. 

Hien’s older brother, he experienced great hardship in a communist prison camp after the war and turns deeply religious, eventually becoming a Jesuit priest. He is the extended family member who is the most influential in Anh’s life, choosing where he goes to school and serving as a sort of spiritual advisor. He performs the rites at Anh’s marriage to Suzie. 

The sixth-born brother of Anh’s father, he is supposedly adopted by the family. He lives with Anh’s family for a while in Australia, and Anh becomes very close to him. However, he suddenly leaves in the middle of the night, and Anh does not see him again for almost twenty years. The truth finally comes out that he is the son of Anh’s grandfather’s mistress, and was taken in by the family. This is the family’s deepest secret not spoken of for decades. 

Anh’s paternal grandmother is one of the kindest, most generous people he knows. This is partially shown by her taking in her husband’s love child and forgiving her husband’s infidelity, but also by her actions in Australia. She is always taking people in and sharing what little they have. She keeps a clean house, which leads to amusing incidents of nearly lost key documents. Anh’s grandmother is the subject of many of Anh’s fondest memories and anecdotes. 

Anh’s long-time best friend, and later, girlfriend and wife, she is a key character in the second half of the book. She and Anh meet on their first day of law school, and become fast friends. Although Anh is infatuated with her from day one, she prefers to remain friends. They go on this way for several years, the time never quite right for them to get together. Eventually, after several failed relationships, they begin to date, and go from friends, to engaged, to married in less than a year. They are unfailingly supportive of each other’s ambitions, with Anh urging Suzie to quit her law job and follow her passions for writing and photography. Anh and Suzie have three children, two boys and a daughter, when the book ends.