Vu Tran’s debut thriller, “Dragonfish,” surprises in ways that readers may not initially expect. At its core, this richly satisfying work is pure noir. Its narrator, 45-year-old Robert Ruen, is a ...

Context Explanation

Vu Tran was frustrated with traditional dating apps. As an Asian male, he felt that the current offerings “get hijacked by the majority.” So, Tran and a few friends spent a weekend building an app ... The spoken word doesn't count for much in Vu Tran's hard-hitting debut novel, Dragonfish. The book turns on a few weary confessional speeches, but what people write is usually much more important than ...

Insight Material

The expression, “It’s a Vietnamese thing” is uttered more than once in “Dragonfish,” Vu Tran’s odd, transfixing existential thriller. Robert Ruen, an Oakland cop, has spent several years and a ...