The International Bestseller
A New York Times Editors' Choice SelectionA 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.
