Tracey Lien's debut novel, All That's Left Unsaid, follows a Vietnamese Australian family in Cabramatta, which is a suburb of Sydney, capital of the state of New South Wales. The presence of a migrant hostel in the area in the 1960s and '70s made it a hub for Southeast Asians fleeing the Vietnam War. By the mid-1990s, around a quarter of the population was Vietnamese, and Cabra — as it is affectionately known to locals — continues to be home to the largest Vietnamese community in Australia as well as a significant and diverse Asian population in general, with a city center that has been said to resemble Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) in Vietnam.

Now a go-to food destination for Vietnamese fare and other Asian cuisines, Cabramatta is abundant in restaurants and market stalls serving delicacies. Before its culinary reputation took hold, however, the area had a much less favorable claim to fame: Gripped by a heroin epidemic, it was known as the drug capital of Australia, ...