The Mountains Sing

Winner of the 2021 International Book AwardsWinner of the 2021 PEN OaklandJosephine Miles Literary AwardWinner of the 2020 Lannan Literary Award Fellowship for FictionWinner of the Blogger’s Book Prize, 2021 * Shortlisted for the People’s Book Prize, 2021’An epic account of Viet Nam’s painful 20th-century history, both vast in scope and intimate in its telling… Moving and riveting.’ Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer Selected as a Best Book of 2020 by NB Magazine * BookBrowse * Buzz Magazine * NPR * Washington Independent Review of Books * Real Simple * She Reads * A Hindu’s View * Thoughts from a PageOne family, two generations of women and a war that will change their lives foreverHa Noi, 1972. Huong and her grandmother, Tran Dieu Lan, cling to one another in their improvised shelter as American bombs fall around them.

For Tran Dieu Lan, forced to flee the family farm with her six children decades earlier as the Communist government rose to power in the North, this experience is horribly familiar. Seen through the eyes of these two unforgettable women, The Mountains Sing captures their defiance and determination, hope and unexpected joy. Vivid, gripping, and steeped in the language and traditions of Viet Nam, celebrated Vietnamese poet Nguyen’s richly lyrical debut weaves between the lives of a grandmother and granddaughter to paint a unique picture of a country pushed to breaking point, and a family who refuse to give up.

‘Devastating… From the French and Japanese occupations to the Indochina wars, The Great Hunger, land reform and the Vietnam War, it’s a story of resilience, determination, family and hope in a country blighted by pain.’ Refinery29