Son is real. Son was saved from a life he cannot remember. Son is a human in a mythical world of ghosts. This is what Father tells him. Son has lived his entire life inside the mansion. He is a good child. He reads, practices piano, studies, and watches ghosts tend the farmland through a window in the attic. When Father decides it is time for Son to venture outside, Son's desire to please Father overpowers his fear, and he must contend with questions he never wanted to face. What are the relentlessly grinning ghosts hiding? Has a ghost taken control of Father? What answers or horrors lie in the forest? And who will stop the mysterious encroaching shadows? Nghiem Tran's debut inverts the haunted house tale, shaping it into a moving exploration of loss, coming of age in a collapsing world, and the battle between isolation and assimilation.

National print, radio, and online campaign Targeted bookseller mailing Promotion at Winter Institute Virtual and in-person events in New York City and the Midwest Promotion on Coffee House Press e-newsletter, website, and social media channels Giveaways on Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads

About the Author
Nghiem Tran was born in Vietnam and raised in Kansas. He is a Kundiman Fellow, and he has received degrees from Vassar College and Syracuse University. We're Safe When We're Alone is his first book.

Reviews

Praise for We're Safe When We're Alone

NPR, "2023 Best Books (Books We Love)"

"This hypnotic and richly allusive novella can be read as a concentric poem that hints at both hope and inevitable endings." -Thuy Dinh, NPR

"Sentences function like arrows that land in the reader's brain or stomach or heart, leaving the reader with piercing insights that reverberate long after the book ends." -Melissa Reddish, Necessary Fiction

"Haunting, mournful, and thought-provoking. Tran's debut novella expresses the anxieties and fears that come with love, trust, loss, and the unknown." -Sammy Loree, Chicago Review of Books

"A spare and haunted tale of loneliness in a surreal world." -Kirkus

"Tran flips ghost story conventions upside down." -David Lewis, Barrelhouse

"Nghiem Tran's first novella is a marvel: a moving, lyrical piece of prose that happens to be an unputdownable page-turner. He has created a magical world-in the mode of Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Maxine Hong Kingston-that's astonishingly real. Read it and feel yourself transformed, maybe even saved." -Mary Karr

"The exquisite We're Safe When We're Alone is a haunting and mesmerizing debut. Part parable, part fairy tale, and part nightmare, it all seems distilled out of the deepest longing. Nghiem Tran is a powerful new voice." -Dana Spiotta

Book Information
ISBN 9781566896832
Author Tran Nghiem
Format Paperback
Page Count 120
Imprint Coffee House Press
Publisher Coffee House Press