The Mountains Sing

- Reviews -

' The Mountains Sing is a triumph, a novelistic rendition of one of the most difficult times in recent Vietnamese history, the land reform of the north. A touchy subject that Que Mai handles gracefully and movingly. . . both vast in scope and intimate in its telling. ' * Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of The Sympathizer * ' Expansive in scope and feeling, The Mountains Sing is a feat of hope, an unflinchingly felt inquiry into the past, with the courageous storytelling of the present. ' * Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We' re Briefly Gorgeous * ' A sweeping tale of one family' s shifting fortunes in Vietnam across half a century. . . Invitingly and gracefully told. . . A richly imagined story of severed bonds amid conflict. ' * Kirkus, starred review * ' [A] lyrical, sweeping debut novel. . . Nguyen brilliantly explores the boundary between what a writer shares with the world and what remains between family. This brilliant, unsparing love letter to Vietnam will move readers. ' * Publishers Weekly, starred review * ' An engrossing story of family, adversity, war, loss, and triumph . . . Recalling Min Jin Lee and Lisa See, Nguyen displays a lush and captivating storyteller' s gift as she effortlessly transports readers to another world, leaving them wishing for more. ' * Library Journal, starred review * ' Widely published in Vietnamese, poet, nonfiction writer, and translator Nguyen Phan Que Mai' s first novel in English balances the unrelenting devastation of war with redemptive moments of surprising humanity. ' * Booklist * ' It' s lyrical, wrenching, sometimes painful to read, but ultimately glorious in affirming the resilience of the human spirit. ' * Julia Alvarez, author of Afterlife * ' Nguyen Phan Que Mai' s sweeping tale proves on every page that despite war-time tragedies and numbing ugliness, the human desire to forgive and thrive soars as high as the mountains. ' * Thanhha Lai, National Book Award-winning author of Inside Out and Back Again * ' A beautiful evocation of a lost world. ' * Paris Review of Books * ' Generations of a Vietnamese family grapple with the legacy of violence, colonialism and war as a woman tells her childhood history to her granddaughter during the Vietnam War. This is the first book that Que Mai, a celebrated Vietnamese poet, has written in English. ' * New York Times, 13 Books to Watch For in March * ' [An] absorbing, stirring novel. . . Que Mai contains her saga with a poet' s discipline, crafting spare and unsparing sentences, and uplifts it with a poet' s antenna for beauty in the most desolate circumstances. She evokes the landscape hauntingly, as a site of loss so profound it assumes the quality of fable. ' * New York Times Book Review * ' Good literature frees us from being trapped in our own skins by allowing us to identify with characters and see the world through their eyes. Reading this novel, I was moved by Nguyen Phan Que Mai' s beautiful, even poetic, depictions of enduring courage. I came away with a deeper understanding of the war in which I fought. ' * Karl Marlantes, bestselling author of Matterhorn and Deep River * ' A historical novel that portrays Vietnamese strength in the face of adversity. . . I came away at the end of the book with a new appreciation for the courage and resourcefulness of the Vietnamese. ' * Washington Independent Review of Books * ' Que Mai tells the story of the war that tore apart Viet Nam, and of the generation lost to the war, by braiding around it two beautiful strands told by the older and younger generations of a family. This book is an act of love, compassion, and ultimately healing. ' * Thi Bui, author of The Best We Could Do * ' A luminous, complex family narrative. . . Que Mai [has] an astute and graceful ability to sustain contradictory truths about war, displacement, aesthetic representations, and human nature. . . The Mountains Sing affirms the individual' s right to think, read, and act according to a code of intuitive civility, borne out of Vietnam' s fertile and compassionate cultural heritage. ' * NPR * ' Nguyen Phan Que Mai has written a wonderful, intricate story of the lives of a Vietnamese family trying to make it through generations of war. The Mountains Sing is a beautiful story of the simple challenge of keeping a family together and the courage of perseverance. It is told with the sureness of a master storyteller with a poet' s spirit. . . Marvellous to read. ' * Larry Heinemann, National Book Award-winning author of Paco' s Story * ' A poignant English debut - a gripping portrait of Viet Nam folded between a generational tale of love, loss, and above all else, the will to survive. Honest, alluring and hopeful, The Mountains Sing is a stunning work of historical fiction that lays bare history long forgotten; an essential novel for readers looking to uncover the truth of Viet Nam. ' * Paperback Paris * ' In this moving family saga, author Que Mai gives us a rare glimpse into the lives of ordinary North Vietnamese as they struggle to survive the calamities that descend over their country - from the Japanese occupation during World War II, to the harsh and ideological rule of the communists, to the American bombing of the North, and to the shocks and aftershocks of the Vietnam War. It is a story of loss and sorrow, of longing for peace and normalcy, and-above all-of the triumph of hope over despair, told in the authentic voices of a resilient and resourceful grandmother and her granddaughter. ' * Mai Elliott, author of The Sacred Willow: Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family * ' A multigenerational epic about a family torn apart by war and the efforts of its various members to survive. . . Nguyen' s poetic descriptions and deep affection for her characters allow the reader to feel for the Tran family' s many vicissitudes. ' * Star Tribune * ' In The Mountains Sing, Nguyen Phan Que Mai has found a true and clear voice in English that is rich and compelling the way only those who come to English as a second language can sometimes manage. ' * Bruce Weigl, author of bestselling memoir The Circle of Hanh * ' A vast, epic historical novel set against the backdrop of the Viet Nam conflict through the eyes of the people themselves. ' * Ms. Magazine * ' Nguyen Phan Que Mai traces a half a century of Vietnam' s history through the stories of Tran Dieu Lan, who loses her livelihood during the 1950s land reform, and her granddaughter Huong, who comes of age in the 1970s during the Vietnam War. This poetic novel illustrates how their sacrifices ripple through the family. ' * Real Simple, ' What to Read Next' * ' This is a love letter, told honestly and poignantly, to the Vietnamese people, an homage to their dedication to remembrance, during and after a painful time. ' * The Arts Fuse * ' Epic in scope, and a celebration of the human spirit, The Mountains Sing is a story you won' t soon forget. ' * PopSugar, 25 of the Best New Books to Add to Your Reading List This Spring * ' It is in some ways, I would say, the Vietnamese version of The Grapes of Wrath, because it' s describing this time period in Vietnamese history that' s deeply traumatic, and yet also poorly understood, and in many ways is a time period that completely contradicted how the North Vietnamese and the Communist Party saw themselves. ' * Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of The Sympathizer *

- Author Bio -

Born in Viet Nam in 1973, Nguyen Phan Que Mai grew up witnessing the war' s devastation on her country. She worked as a street seller and rice farmer before winning a scholarship to attend university in Australia. She is the author of eight books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction published in Vietnamese, and her writing has been translated and published in more than 10 countries, most recently in Norton' s Inheriting the War anthology. Her work has received the Ha Noi Writers Association ' Poetry of the Year' Award (2010). She currently lives with her family in Jakarta.

- Full Details -

Status:	Indent title, imported to order
ISBN-13:	9781786079220
Published:	20 Aug 2020
Published In:	United Kingdom
Imprint:	Oneworld Publications
Publisher:	Oneworld Publications
Format:	Hardback
Height:	234mm
Width:	153mm
Spine:	30mm
Pages:	352

- Delivery ETA -

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