The Mountains Sing by Nguyẽ̂n Phan Qué̂ Mai

The Mountains Sing is the English debut novel of Vietnamese poet, Nguyẽ̂n Phan Qué̂ Mai. The chapters of this multigenerational family saga are narrated by the alternating voices of Grandma Dieu Lan and her granddaughter Huong. Their oral histories mirror each other as Dieu Lan, born in the 1920s, was forced to leave her family farm in northern Vietnam during periods of government conflict, famine and World War II. Huong, born in the 1960s, grows up in Ha Noi during the Vietnam War and continued government tensions. Through Grandma Dieu Lan’s stories of courage and survival Huong tries to untangle the pain of her parents, aunts and uncles.

The trauma endured by Dieu Lan’s family is gut-wrenching. Nguyẽ̂n Phan Qué̂ Mai does not shy away from the tragedies of survival or the hard conversations caused by decades of conflict. Yet her beautifully written passages speckled with Vietnamese adages warm your heartstrings and shine a healing light on the kindness of strangers, the power of forgiveness and the persistence of hope.

Readers of The Island Sea Women by Lisa See or Christy Lefteri’s The Beekeeper of Aleppo should add The Mountains Sing to their ‘to be read’ list.

Written by Terri S., Circulation