Books from Vietnam
43 popular vietnamese books
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
The target of the Read Around The World Challenge is to read at least one book written by an author from each and every country in the world.
All books that are listed here as part of the "Read Around Asia Challenge" were written by authors from Vietnam.
Find a great book for the next part of your reading journey around the world from this book list. The following popular books have been recommended so far.
31.
The Mountains Sing by Que Mai Phan Nguyen EN
Description:
The International Bestseller New York Times Editors’ Choice SelectionWinner of the 2020 Lannan Literary Awards Fellowship "[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... continue
32.
The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen EN
Description:
A collection of stories written over a twenty-year period that examines the Vietnamese experience in America as well as questions of home, family, and identity.
33.
The Sailor from Gibraltar by Marguerite Duras EN
Description:
Disaffected, bored with his career at the French Colonial Ministry (where he has copied out birth and death certificates for eight years), and disgusted by a mistress whose vapid optimism arouses his most violent misogyny, the narrator finds himself at the point of complete breakdown while vacationing in Florence. After leaving his mistress and the Ministry behind forever, he joins the crew of The Gibraltar, a yacht captained by Anna, a beautiful American in perpetual search of her sometime lover, a young man known only as the Sailor from Gibraltar.''
34.
The Song of Kieu : A New Lament by Nguyen Du EN
Description:
"An essential book for anyone invested, not only in Vietnamese literature, but the historic power of the national epic...and its perennial place in our species' efforts toward self-knowledge. Tim Allen's new translation offers clean fluidity while honouring the original's varied rhythms and jagged lyricism. A luminous feat." --Ocean Vuong A stunning new translation of the legendary Vietnamese epic poem, now for the first time in Penguin Classics Considered the greatest literary achievement in Vietnamese, The Song of Kieu tells the story of the beautiful Vuong Thuy Kieu, who agrees to a financi... continue
35.
The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh EN
Description:
Kien’s job is to search the Jungle of Screaming Souls for corpses. He knows the area well – this was where, in the dry season of 1969, his battalion was obliterated by American napalm and helicopter gunfire. Kien was one of only ten survivors. This book is his attempt to understand the eleven years of his life he gave to a senseless war. Based on true experiences of Bao Ninh and banned by the communist party, this novel is revered as the ‘All Quiet on the Western Front for our era’.
36.
The Sympathizer : Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction by Viet Thanh Nguyen EN
Description:
*** WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2016*** WINNER OF THE EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL 2016 WINNER OF THE CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION 2016 'A fierce novel written in a refreshingly high style and charged with intelligent rage' Financial Times It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army is drinking whiskey and, with the help of his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be given passage aboard the last flights out of the country. The general and his compatriots start a new life in Los Angeles, unaware tha... continue
37.
The Tale of Kieu : A Bilingual Edition of Nguyen Du's Truyen Kieu by Nguyen Du EN
Description:
Since its publication in the early nineteenth century, this long narrative poem has stood unchallenged as the supreme masterpiece of Vietnamese literature. Thông’s new and absorbingly readable translation (on pages facing the Vietnamese text) is illuminated by notes that give comparative passages from the Chinese novel on which the poem was based, details on Chinese allusions, and literal translations with background information explaining Vietnamese proverbs and folk sayings.
38.
The Zenith : A Novel by Duong Thu Huong EN
Description:
Memory is the one who builds you a permanent court of justice. Memory is the one at your side from whom you cannot run... A sweeping tale of thwarted love, political intrigue, and the price of power—“The Doctor Zhivago of Vietnam” (Boston Globe)—about Ho Chi Minh, the founding father of modern Vietnam, a man beloved by millions but shrouded in controversy and mystery Vietnam's most popular dissident writer, Duong Thu Huong has won acclaim for her exceptional lyricism and psychological acumen, as well as for her unflinching portraits of modern Vietnam and its culture and people. Built on 15 yea... continue
39.
Ticket to Childhood: A Novel by Nguyen Nhat Anh EN
Description:
“This charming short work recalls The Little Prince in its depiction of childhood sensibilities pitted against an often illogical and absurd adult world” (Publishers Weekly). A fable for all ages and a massive bestseller in the author’s home country of Vietnam, Ticket to Childhood captures the texture of childhood in all of its richness. Narrated by a man looking back, it explores the small miracles and tragedies, the misadventures and misdeeds, that made up his life. We meet his long-lost friends, none of whom can forget how rich their lives once were. Even if Nguyen Nhat Anh can’t take us ba... continue
40.
Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong EN
Description:
The New York Times-bestselling collection of poems from the award-winning writer Ocean Vuong "Take your time with these poems, and return to them often.” —The Washington Post How else do we return to ourselves but to fold The page so it points to the good part In this deeply intimate second poetry collection, Ocean Vuong searches for life among the aftershocks of his mother’s death, embodying the paradox of sitting within grief while being determined to survive beyond it. Shifting through memory, and in concert with the themes of his novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Vuong contends with p... continue