The mountains sing : a novel

Title:

Author:

Nguyẽ̂n, Phan Qué̂ Mai, 1973- author.

Summary:

"The multigenerational tale of the Trà̂n family, set against the backdrop of the Việt Nam War. Trà̂n Diệu Lan, who was born in 1920, was forced to flee her family farm with her six children during the Land Reform as the Communist government rose in the North. Years later in Hà Nội, her young granddaughter, Hương, comes of age as her parents and uncles head off down the Hồ Chí Minh Trail to fight in a conflict that will tear not just her beloved country but her family apart"-- Provided by publisher.

Edition:

First edition.

Contents:

The tallest mountains -- Red on the white grains -- The fortune teller -- Getting up and falling down again -- The great hunger -- My father's gift -- The land reform -- The journey south -- The walk -- My mother's secret -- Destination -- The country bumpkin boy -- The way to happiness -- My Uncle Minh -- Facing the enemy -- My grandmother's songs.

Physical Description:

342 pages ; 24 cm

Genre:

Historical fiction.

Subject Term:

Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Fiction.

Families -- Vietnam -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Vietnam -- History -- 20th century -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill,

Publication Date:

2020

ISBN:

9781616208189

Publication Information:

Chapel Hill, North Carolina : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, [2020]

Call Number:

NGUYEN

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003498998	Adult Fiction	NGUYEN Phan Que Mai	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

The International Bestseller

A New York Times Editors' Choice Selection A Winner of the 2020 Lannan Literary Awards Fellowship

A Best Book of 2020: NPR's Book Concierge * PopMatters * Washington Independent Review of Books * Real Simple * The Buzz Magazine * NB Magazine * BookBrowse * Paperback Paris * Writer's Bone * Global Atlanta

"[An] absorbing, stirring novel . . . that, in more than one sense, remedies history." -- The New York Times Book Review

"A triumph, a novelistic rendition of one of the most difficult times in Vietnamese history . . . Vast in scope and intimate in its telling . . . Moving and riveting." --VIET THANH NGUYEN, author of The Sympathizer , winner of the Pulitzer Prize

With the epic sweep of Min Jin Lee's Pachinko or Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing and the lyrical beauty of Vaddey Ratner's In the Shadow of the Banyan , The Mountains Sing tells an enveloping, multigenerational tale of the Trần family, set against the backdrop of the Việt Nam War. Trần Diệu Lan, who was born in 1920, was forced to flee her family farm with her six children during the Land Reform as the Communist government rose in the North. Years later in Hà Nội, her young granddaughter, Hương, comes of age as her parents and uncles head off down the Hồ Chí Minh Trail to fight in a conflict that tore apart not just her beloved country, but also her family.

Vivid, gripping, and steeped in the language and traditions of Việt Nam, The Mountains Sing brings to life the human costs of this conflict from the point of view of the Vietnamese people themselves, while showing us the true power of kindness and hope.

The Mountains Sing is celebrated Vietnamese poet Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai's first novel in English.

Author Notes

Born and raised in Việt Nam, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is the author of The Mountains Sing , runner-up for the 2021 Dayton Literary Peace Prize, winner of the 2020 BookBrowse Best Debut Award, the 2021 International Book Awards, the 2021 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award, and the 2020 Lannan Literary Award Fellowship for Fiction. She has published twelve books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction and has received some of the top literary prizes in Việt Nam. Her writing has been translated into twenty languages and has appeared in major publications, including the New York Times . She has a PhD in creative writing from Lancaster University. She is an advocate for the rights of disadvantaged groups in Việt Nam and has founded several scholarship programs, and she was named by Forbes Vietnam as one of twenty inspiring women of 2021. For more information, visit: http://www.nguyenphanquemai.com.

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Nguyễn's lyrical, sweeping debut novel (after the poetry collection The Secret of Hoa Sen) chronicles the Tran family through a century of war and renewal. As middle-aged writer Hương revisits her native Hanoi in 2012, she reflects on the lessons shared by her late grandmother Diệu Lan ("The challenges faced by Vietnamese people throughout history are as tall as the tallest mountains. If you stand too close, you won't be able to see their peaks") and chronicles their journey of survival during the Vietnam War. Hương was 12 when bombs encroached on Hanoi, where she lived with Diệu Lan after her mother, Ngọc, a physician, left to search for her father, a soldier in the NVA. After an evacuation to the mountains, Diệu Lan "opened the door of her childhood" to Huoung with stories of being raised by a wealthy family to pursue an education and resist old customs such as blackening her teeth. Diệu Lan also describes the harrowing truth of the Việt Minh Land Reform, during which her family's land was seized in the spirit of resource distribution, encouraging her to question what she's been taught in schools. Grandma and Hương return to Hanoi and find their house decimated, and Ngọc, who survived torture and rape while imprisoned by South Vietnamese soldiers, comes home without Hương's father. In a subtle coda, Nguyễn 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. (Mar.)