Fish in Exile

The loss of a child takes mythological, magical casts—distortions that allow us to see the contours of grief more clearly.

How do you grieve the death of a child? With fishtanks and jellyfish burials, Persephone’s pomegranate seeds, and affairs with the neighbors. Fish in Exile spins unimaginable loss through classical and magical tumblers, distorting our view so that we can see the contours of a parent’s grief all the more clearly.

Publication date: November 1, 2016

Format: Trade Paper

Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.25

Page count: 192 pages

ISBN: 9781566894494

Vi Khi Nao was born in Long Khánh, Vietnam. Vi’s work includes poetry, fiction, film and cross-genre collaboration. Her poetry collection, The Old Philosopher, was the winner of 2014 Nightboat Poetry Prize. Her novel, Fish In Exile, will make its first appearance in Fall 2016 from Coffee House Press. She holds an MFA in fiction from Brown University.

“Jagged and unforgettable. Refusing sentimentality and realism, [Nao] shows how personal devastation can feel, to the sufferer, as powerful and enduring as myth.” 

—Viet Thanh Nguyen

“The result is a novel that forges a new vocabulary for the routine of grief, as well as the process of healing.” 

—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Nao . . . blends prose and poetry in her heart-wrenching novel about a couple grieving for their two dead children.” 

—BBC

“[Nao’s] sentences roll in and surround like a thick fog, dampening, chilling, becoming in certain moments, wholly iridescent.” 

—The Boston Globe

“Fish in Exile manipulates form as a means to exploring its themes thoroughly.”

—The Los Angeles Times

“Vi Khi Nao has created a meditation that splits open the numbing and disorienting problems of loss and mourning with language that breathes new life into an old suffering.” 

—The Millions

“Fish in Exile melts traditional academic narrative with magic and folklore, creating an unforgettable story that reminds the reader there is no universally correct approach to dealing with grief.” 

—The Rumpus

“A magical and fresh perspective on grief, this beautiful book is like nothing you've ever read before.” 

—Bustle

“It’s an extreme feat of economy and vision that Vi Khi Nao was able to so robustly depict the aftermath of the death of one’s child in such a fascinating and exciting set of sentences and logic.” 

—Vice

“When you open the first pages of Fish in Exile, it is clear: you are conversing with a poet.” 

—Heavy Feather Review

“For all the weightiness of its subject matter, Fish in Exile is also surprisingly light on its feet: eccentric, absurd, and delightfully wry. This book wriggles with so much originality and life, it'll have you hooked from the very start.” 

—BuzzFeed

"I love this book for its texture, its granular absurdities, its aqueous erotics, its garlic paper longing. I’ve never felt anything like it.” 

—Joanna Ruocco