The Tapestries — Kien Nguyen

A boy takes a harrowing journey to manhood in early 1900s Vietnam in this “daringly complex and vividly imagined debut novel” based on a true story (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

Dan Nguyen is seven years old when he witnesses his father brutally beheaded by the mayor of his town in a bid for power. Already married to a woman twenty years his senior, Dan's wife Ven makes him promise to one day avenge his father's death. In order to protect him until he is old enough to defend his family's honor, Ven hides Dan as a slave in his enemy's house.

As years pass, Dan falls in love with the one person he can never have, the mayor's beautiful granddaughter Tai May. Dan's journey from slavery into scandal, and finally to the royal court where he has the chance to win Tai May's heart, is a story of spellbinding drama, intrigue, and love. Following his critically acclaimed memoir, The Unwanted, Kien Nguyen shares this epic tale based loosely on the life of his grandfather, a professional embroiderer in the court of Vietnam's last king.