Those Opulent Days

October 1, 2024
Vietnamese Australian Pham's debut is a four-part bildungsroman truncated by murder. "He's gone," Pham opens, "just like the fortune teller had predicted thirteen years ago." Back in 1917, Duy, Phong, Minh, and Edmond were boarding-school best friends when a visit to a famed fortune-teller sealed their futures--"The four of you. One will lose his mind. One will pay. One will agonize . . . One will die." As young men, their lives remain interlinked in Saigon. Duy and Phong both missed their opportunity to study abroad, Duy because of his (manipulative) mother's illness, Phong because he surrendered to his (abusive) father's contempt. Minh, who took over his family's rubber plantations, is an indulged, heinously violent heir. Edmond, the only non-Vietnamese, has recently returned to "disturbingly repulsive" Saigon after a month in France. All manner of excesses fuel (dull?) their entitled existence as their childhood brotherhood sunders. With bouncing chronological, polyphonic reveals, Pham melodramatically delivers an overwrought morality tale about the noxious legacy of colonialism, perils of toxic masculinity, and evils of profligate privilege.

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October 1, 2024
In this debut drama set in early-1900s Saigon, a rich young man is found dead--butwhich rich young man is it? The appearance of a dead body fulfills a prophesy made in 1917, when four 11-year-old boys snuck out of their boarding school to consult a fortuneteller. The woman had a vexing prediction for the young friends: "One will lose his mind. One will pay. One will agonize"; to the ringleader she confided, "One will die." Thirteen years later, one of them does die--by poison. From here the novel jumps back in time six days and proceeds to inch forward, tracing the events leading to the discovery of the body, by which point readers will have learned who has died and by whose hand. The novel, whose ping-ponging chronology (some flashbacks contain flashbacks) can be discombobulating, harbors a mystery without especially reading like one, as the focus here isn't detective work but character. Key players, who take turns with the book's perspective, star in gorgeously appointed scenes awash in faithful historical detail and tense with stewing and scheming. The story's villainy is rooted in restrictive attitudes about class, race, and sexuality, which can make the book feel heavy with intent, but the entr�e the novel affords into the privileged lives of the four principals--sunny Duy, volatile Minh, opium-addicted Phong, and hard-drinking French-born Edmond--feels like a rare treat. The "upstairs" abundance is judiciously balanced with the perspectives of "downstairs" characters, one of whom observes, not without justification, that the four lads "walked with confidence, the ground beneath their heels polished just for them." A heady, character-driven historical novel embedded with a mystery.

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June 1, 2024

Pham's debut is set in 1920s French-occupied Vietnam and puts colonialism and wealth disparity on the suspect list. Best friends since childhood, Duy, Phong, Minh, and Edmond each now head their family's businesses. They gather for an indulgent evening, but one of them does not live through the night--and any of the surviving three could be a killer. Prepub Alert.

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December 3, 2024
At first glance, Jacquie Pham’s debut novel, Those Opulent Days, might appear to be a classic whodunit murder mystery, except the true ‘villain’ is far from the usual suspect. Set in 1928 French-colonial Vietnam, the novel follows lifelong best friends Duy, Phong, Minh and Edmond, who are haunted by a prophecy that one of them will die soon. As each assume their roles in Saigon’s high society, the group’s deepening tensions reveal something far more sinister than the foretold death. Those Opulent Days is a gripping story of friendship and youth corrupted by wealth and colonialism and the consequences of growing up too fast in an unforgiving world. Pham crafts deeply complex characters who are sympathetic yet sometimes cruel and ruthless, brought to life through a narrative that skilfully transitions between flashbacks and the perspectives of the boys, their families and their servants. Although the shifting perspectives occasionally disrupt the narrative flow, it becomes clear that these diverse perspectives are vital to gaining a nuanced view of how the murder happened and understanding the power imbalance and corrupt structures that led to it. While the murder plot initially hooks you, the story soon centres on forbidden love, the burdens of duty and the violent nature of colonialism and power. This historical crime thriller is rich with heart and mystery, perfect for readers who crave thrillers with more depth. It lingers in your mind, provoking reflection on the consuming and disruptive nature of wealth and power long after the final page. For readers who enjoyed the coming-of-age story and mystery of Stephen King’s The Body and the colonial themes of Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing.

September 9, 2024
Pham debuts with a memorable and disturbing historical set in French-occupied Vietnam. In 1918, four wealthy boys—native Annamites Duy, Phong, and Minh, and Frenchman Edmond—steal away from their boarding school to visit a fortune teller who warns that one of them will die by poison. A decade later, after the boys have grown into formidable businessmen, one of them dies such a death, at a debaucherous party in an extravagant Dalat mansion. From there, the narrative splinters, with flashbacks from each protagonist’s perspective buttressed by recollections from their employees, lovers, and mothers that give gradual context to the central tragedy. What emerges is less a traditional mystery than a bleak portrait of life under colonization, with special focus on the ill treatment of women and animals by elites, and the spiritual hopelessness that saturates their ranks: even Phong, the most brilliant and promising of the friends, abandons his studies to smoke Duy’s family’s opium and pursue a doomed love affair with Edmond. Pham’s prose is lyrical, and her evocation of the period immersive, but the sprawling cast means some secondary characters don’t quite come to life. Still, this is a tense and unique dispatch from a key period in Vietnamese history. Agent: Danya Kukafka, Trellis Literary.