The Afterlife of a Threadbare Jester : A Novel

Featured on Kirkus Reviews' Best Indie Books of June Recognized by Historical Novel Society as One of the Best Historical Fiction Releases of May 2026 The Afterlife of a Threadbare Jester is a haunting portrait of endurance and exile in the wake of the Vietnam War. When a former intelligence officer is imprisoned in a communist reeducation camp, he must navigate years of forced labor, betrayal, and solitude. His attempts to escape lead only to deeper loss, and by the time he is released, his family has long fled to America, leaving him to confront the ruins of a life he no longer recognizes. At once brutal and poetic, this novel illuminates the quiet resilience of the human spirit and asks what remains when everything else has been stripped away.