Profound and Moving Debut: Read Our Review of All That’s Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien

There were a dozen witnesses to Denny Tran’s brutal murder in a busy Sydney restaurant. So how come no one saw anything?

‘Just let him go.’ Those are words Ky Tran will forever regret. The words she spoke when her parents called to ask if they should let her younger brother Denny out to celebrate his high school graduation. That night in 1996, Denny – optimistic, guileless, brilliant Denny – is brutally murdered inside a busy restaurant in Cabramatta, a Sydney suburb facing violent crime, an indifferent police force, and the worst heroin epidemic in Australian history.

Returning home for the funeral, Ky learns that the police are stumped by her brother’s case: several people were at Lucky 8 restaurant when Denny died, but each of the bystanders claim to have seen nothing.

As an antidote to grief and guilt, Ky is determined to track down the witnesses herself. With each encounter, she peels away another layer of the place that shaped her and Denny, exposing the trauma and seeds of violence that were planted well before that fateful celebration dinner: by colonialism, by the war in Vietnam, and by the choices they’ve all made to survive.

Occasionally, a book will land on my desk that is so well written, so different and so very good that I’m a little envious. Good envy… the envy one writer gets when another writer has delivered something so special. This year, All That’s Left Unsaid is that book for me.

Though this is Tracey Lien’s debut, she’s honed her craft well, with an MFA at the University of Kansas and ten years as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Originally from Western Sydney, where the novel is set, Lien now lives in New York.

This is a novel that pulls apart the intricate bonds of friendship, family, culture and community that produced a devastating crime. All That’s Left Unsaid is both a study of the effects of inherited trauma and social discrimination, and a compulsively readable literary thriller that expertly holds the reader in its grip until the final page.

The story uses alternating perspectives, between Ky and some of the witnesses. While this is predominantly a family drama, Lien has straddled it right on the border of the crime genre, meaning there is an urgency to it as you read, and the mystery of who killed Denny sits at its core.

There are important themes throughout: belonging, intergenerational trauma, PTSD, among others. And grief, which is exquisitely expressed. I grieved Denny alongside Ky and the other characters.

All That’s Left Unsaid is a profound and moving page-turner, and one of my favourite reads of 2022. I predict that we’ll be hearing a lot more from Lien going forward.

Buy a copy of All That’s Left Unsaid.