In 1968 Nguyen Qui Duc was nine years old, his father was a high-ranking civil servant in the South Vietnamese government, and his mother was a school principal. Then the Viet Cong launched their Tet offensive, and the Nguyen family’s comfortable life was destroyed. The author’s father was taken prisoner and marched up the Ho Chi Minh Trail. North Vietnam's highest-ranking civilian prisoner, he eventually spent twelve years in captivity, composing poems in his head to maintain his sanity. Nguyen himself escaped from Saigon as North Vietnamese tanks approached in 1975. He came of age as an American teenager, going to school dances and working at a Roy Rogers restaurant, yet yearning for the homeland and parents he had to leave behind. The author’s mother stayed in Vietnam to look after her mentally ill daughter. She endured poverty and “reeducation” until her husband was freed and the Nguyens could reunite. Intertwining these three stories, Where the Ashes Are shows us the Vietnam War through a child’s eyes, privation after a Communist takeover, and the struggle of new immigrants. The author, who returned to Vietnam as an American reporter, provides a detailed portrait of the nation as it opened to the West in the early 1990s. Where the Ashes Are closes with Nguyen’s thoughts on being pulled between his adopted country and his homeland.

Where the Ashes Are: The Odyssey of a Vietnamese Family

Biographies & Memoirs

Nguyen, Qui Duc

Historical

Bison Books

The Time Tree is a collection of poems by a poet born into poverty and tempered in the crucible of war, who devoted himself to rigorous study to become one of the leading intellectuals and poets of Vietnam.

The Time Tree: Selected Poems of Huu Thinh

Literature & Fiction

Huu Thinh

George Evans

Poetry

Curbstone Books

Since relations between the U.S. and Vietnam have normalized, many more people are traveling to this exotic country, previously closed to a generation of Western visitors. Vietnam provides one of the first chances for Americans to know the Vietnamese outside the context of war. Vietnamese have been telling stories for thousands of years, in poetry and in song, in Chinese script and then in Vietnamese nôm, and more recently, in novels and short stories. These 17 stories, from contemporary Vietnamese writers living in Vietnam and abroad, take the literary traveler to extraordinary places: from the jungle-clad mountain ranges of the North to the mysterious silence of the old capital along the Perfume River. Proximity of the spirit world, love of family, exhaustion from war, one's Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist obligations, social protest, and the hunger for a better life — these are some of the concerns to be encountered in these thrilling landscapes. Contributors include Nguyen Huy Thiep, Linh Bao, Nguyen Ba Trac, Thich Duc Thien, Ho Anh Thai, Le Minh Khue, Doan Quoc Sy, Vu Bao, Duong Thu Huong, Andrew Q. Lam, Nguyen Qui Duc, Qui The, Bao Ninh, and Pham Thi Hoai.

Vietnam: A Traveler's Literary Companion (Traveler's Literary Companions)

Balaban, John

Short Stories & Anthologies

Whereabouts Press

Blossoming of Vietnam: Eleven years of photos and stories in today's exotic emerging country   During my immersion in Vietnam I knew that much of the world was unaware of Vietnam today, as it grew to be the world's 13th largest population. It was less than twenty million then while nearing one hundred million today. How did Vietnam achieve that growth in the half century since surviving mass starvation at the end of World War II? My answer is that it happened because of its loving and intense culture, that is, its soul. In my heart I believe it is the culture that enlightened the heights to which Vietnam has risen after 1500 years of invasion, occupation, and suppression. - Lawrence D'Attilio  This book is a beautiful, poignant, humorous and delightful portfolio of modern Vietnam that also informs about historical culture.  Seamlessly exploring from North to South, the book expresses an awareness of subjects from the magnificent to the mundane.  The aura of these vibrant photographs and stories preserves the natural beauty of the country and the traditions of the people. One can appreciate D'Attilio's memorable way to capture much of what people remember once they have visited Vietnam. Newcomers can be confident that the images represent an accurate contemporary idea of Vietnam as it exists now, instead of a travel agent's hyped post card view. D'Attilio's anecdotal stories separately focus on the weave of Vietnamese life now. Dynamic changes in the large cities are startling for their impact on Vietnam's millennial-old culture. The Soul of Vietnam also illuminates the agrarian rural life that is an underpinning of Vietnam's ongoing success. The author-photographer arrived in Vietnam in 2006, on the cusp of a wave of change.  He found a country poised on the edge of an accelerating economic and cultural evolution, compelling him to return for three month trips eighteen times.  D'Attilio hoisted his cameras in secretive alleys, darkened caves, and city streets filled with waves of people. He thrived on his effort to create matchless images defining Vietnam s extraordinary culture. D'Attilio observes; We mature more when we live within a strikingly different culture and find our inner selves expanding. Every person can use that experience to feel at home in today's connected world. Born in New York City, artist-photographer Lawrence D'Attilio grew up in a fertile world of contemporary artists and marine biologists from many countries, as they frequently visited his parents. Those youthful times made him aware of other cultures and magnified his inquisitiveness about the origin countries. Gradually he gripped the meanings, composition and moments distilled in the viewfinder and ultimately implemented in the images in THE SOUL OF VIETNAM. From his earliest projects, D'Attilio has probed the constructive developments in human movements.  Impacted by his parallel proficiency as an aviator and professional musician, his art projects flourished . Prominent are URBAN INVERSIONS (1970-1996) that depicted transitions in the industrial Midwest, ANCHORS (1998) which experimentally altered Street Photography, RITUALS (2004) that mused on leisure settings, and THE NEW GLOBAL WOMEN (2009 - present) exploring young Asian women's cultural stresses. The New Global Women along with The Soul of Vietnam resulted from D'Attilio's epic determination to understand Vietnam's 21st century transformations. Using photographs and words, THE SOUL OF VIETNAM is D'Attilio's intimate homage to a culture that thinks on its feet, comprehends its place on Earth, and perceives its elevated status in the world.  With one foot in the past, its move into the global arena will be fascinating to observe. In English with parts also translated to Vietnamese.

The Soul of Vietnam

Travel

Lawrence D'Attilio

Asia

The Gioi

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