As part of the Rendez-vous littéraires rue Cambon [Literary Rendezvous at Rue Cambon], the podcast "les Rencontres" highlights the birth of a writer in a series imagined by CHANEL and House ambassador and spokesperson Charlotte Casiraghi.

Listen to author and critic Erica Wagner in conversation with Cecile Pin, writer of “Wandering Souls”, her first novel published by 4th Estate in 2023. Together, they talk about her vocation as a writer and the story of her family, which inspired her book and whose fate is intertwined with that of refugees after the Vietnam War. They also evoke her writing process for this book that required important historical and personal research, as well as the origin of the title which comes from a Vietnamese legend.

(00:00) Introduction

(00:41) Presentation of Cecile Pin and her novel “Wandering Souls” by Erica Wagner

(03:20) On the author’s vocation as a writer

(05:07) On her previous job as an editor

(06:48) The writers who inspire her

(08:04) On the choice of having multiple narrators

(09:21) On the publication process of her novel

(12:40) Reading an extract of “Wandering Souls” by Cecile Pin

(14:10) On the writing process of her novel

(19:01) On writing about traumatic events

(21:18) On the origin of the book’s title

(23:28) The most challenging aspects of writing

(24:34) On writing about Vietnamese boat people in a context of anti-Asian hate

(26:36) On the reception of the book

(29:12) The ending questionnaire of “les Rencontres”

Copyright © Cecile Pin 2023, Wandering Souls, HarperCollins Publishers.

© University College London.

© King's College London. All rights reserved.

Vintage of Penguin Random House.

© Bad Form.

Spread the Word's London Writers Awards.

© Women’s Prize for fiction.

Review Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin review – from Vietnam to London, Sharlene Teo © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2023

© The New York Times Company. All rights reserved. Used under license.

© RCW agency.

© 4th Estate, Harper Collins.

© UK News. All rights reserved.

“TOUS LES GARCONS ET LES FILLES” (FRANCOISE MADELEINE HARDY, ROGER GUSTAVE SAMYN) © EDITIONS MUSICALES ALPHA - Avec l’autorisation d’Universal Music Publishing Film & TV

Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House, © Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019. All rights reserved.

Han Kang, Human Acts, Translated by Deborah Smith, Penguin, 2014.

© National Archives.

RuPaul's Drag Race, © World of Wonder Productions, 2009. All rights reserved.

© East Side Voices.