The Perfume River offers the reader perspectives on Vietnam from both inside and outside the country. The diverse array of writers include renowned authors of the Vietnamese literary canon, 2nd generation ex-pats (based in Australia & America), and non-Vietnamese authors who have special ties with the country and its culture.
The only book of its kind on the market, The Perfume River is a collection of short stories and poetry. It explores a multitude of rich themes including origin, the rural/urban divide in Vietnam, family, generation gaps, lost love, the effects of war, migration, foreigner's impressions of Vietnam, the East/West divide, ex pats, Western attitudes to Vietnam and Asia, Vietnamese attitudes to the West and everyday life in Vietnam. There are 32 contributors, including Nam Le, Andrew Lam, Bao Ninh, Pham Thi Hoai and Pam Brown. [Publisher's media release]
'A young Vietnamese-Australian named Nam, in his final year at the famed Iowa Writers' Workshop, is trying to find his voice on the page. When his father, a man with a painful past, comes to visit, Nam's writing and sense of self are both deeply changed.
'Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice is a deeply moving story of identity, family and the wellsprings of creativity, from Nam Le's multi-award-winning collection The Boat.' (From the publisher's website, 2012 Penguin publication.)
