[2] Vu's writings deal with issues of identity and memory, and immigration from Asia (especially Vietnam) to Canada.

[6] Palawan Story was translated and published in French by Les Éditions de la Pleine Lune in August 2017.

[7] The novel takes its name from the island of Palawan in the Philippines, where over half a million Vietnamese refugees were placed in a camp from 1979 to 1993.

[8] It tells the story of a young girl named Kim who through a stroke of luck is able to leave the camp at Palawan and build a life for herself first in Connecticut and then in Montreal, struggling as an adult to comprehend the chaotic history of her homeland that she had glimpsed through the eyes of a child.

[9][10] In 2016, Les Éditions de la Pleine Lune published the French translation, Un été à Provincetown.