This “moving and riveting” book shares a layered, epic, multigenerational story of the Vietnam war and its aftermath (Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize winning author of
The Sympathizer
)​
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,
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.
is celebrated Vietnamese poet Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s first novel in English.
New York Times
Editors’ Choice Selection
Winner of the 2020 Lannan Literary Awards Fellowship
"[An] absorbing, stirring novel . . . that, in more than one sense, remedies history." —The
Book Review