Kevin Nguyen’s New Novel Enters an Eerie Near-Future in 'an Attempt to Tell Truths That Elude Nonfiction' (Exclusive)

The writer and editor’s sophomore novel draws inspiration from the Vietnam War, Japanese internment camps and timeless family dynamics

Kevin Nguyen presents an eerie, prominent, near-future vision in his forthcoming sophomore novel.

PEOPLE has an exclusive first look at Mỹ Documents, the second book from the acclaimed writer and editor, publishing from One World next spring.

Mỹ Documents centers on four Vietnamese-American cousins: Ursula, a Manhattan-based journalist; Alvin, an engineering intern at Google; Jen, a freshman at New York University and Duncan, a high school football player.

When a series of violent attacks begin taking place around the country, the government enlists a new policy that forces Vietnamese-Americans into internment camps. While Ursula and Alvin receive exemptions from the camps, Jen and Duncan, along with their mother, are sent to Camp Tacoma.

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While in the camp, Jen and Duncan are forced into labor, seemingly with no way to contact the outside world, until Jen finds a way to get messages to people on the outside. Jen’s first choice to reach out to is Ursula, who is drawn to the mission of reporting about what is really happening in the detention camps — and giving her own career a boost.

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"I wanted the characters — four Vietnamese half-siblings in their early twenties — all to come of age in an environment that heightens their sense of identity," Nguyen tells PEOPLE. "After all, one’s identity — especially when it comes to race — is somehow able to be marginalized or monetized or both. For some characters in the book, their ethnicity is what lands them in camp. For others, it’s what makes their career."

Mỹ Documents is inspired by events like the Vietnam War, Japanese incarceration and modern-day immigrant detention, and “gives us a version of reality only a few degrees away from our own — much too close for comfort," according to the book's description.

Nguyen calls it, "a moment in American history that was as cruel as it was surprising, and a time we are not even a century removed from," but notes that he wants his characters to find ways to express their identities and creativity even within those harsh conditions.

"I believe people are resilient and adaptable. Even in difficult circumstances, they still create art and culture — sometimes as a means of resistance, often out of necessity," he explains. "As an editor that has worked on stories about immigration and state violence, I found that this humanity in subjects is often lost in the confines of journalism. Mỹ Documents is an attempt to tell the truths that often elude the constraints of nonfiction."

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Nguyen is currently a features editor at The Verge and was previously an editor at GQ. His journalistic work has been among the finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Magazine Award. Nguyen’s debut novel, New Waves, was published in 2020.

Mỹ Documents will be published on April 8, 2025 and is now available for preorder, wherever books are sold.

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