Afterlife of a Threadbare Jester

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.

Award-winning author Khanh Ha is a ten-time Pushcart nominee. He is the recipient of the Sand Hills Prize for Best Fiction, The Robert Watson Literary Prize, The Orison Anthology Award, The James Knudsen Prize, The C&R Press Fiction Prize, The EastOver Fiction Prize, The Blackwater Press Fiction Prize, The Gival Press Novel Award, The Red Hen Press Fiction Award, The Unleash Creatives Fiction Prize, and The Next Generation INDIE Book Award. Ha was born in Vietnam and is now living in New Jersey.