ACCLAIMED AUTHOR: A series of best-selling books by famous female writer Nguyễn Ngọc Tư featuring the South’s contemporary literature has been reprinted by the Trẻ (Youth) Publishing House in HCM City. — Photo courtesy of Trẻ Publishing House

HCM CITY — A series of best-selling books by Nguyễn Ngọc Tư, a famous female writer of the South’s contemporary literature, has been reprinted by the Trẻ (Youth) Publishing House in HCM City.

The publications include short story collections that brought the writer to fame in the 2000s.

They were selected from Tư’s bestsellers featuring the history, culture and lifestyle of southern people.

Highlighted works include Ngày Mai Của Những Ngày Mai (Tomorrow and Tomorrow), a collection of 36 short stories and essays first released by the Trẻ publisher in 2007.

The work features stories of southern farmers who face difficulties and challenges in daily life to build their land. Love and women are also included.

It is written in a stream of reality style, helping Tư to win her readers’ hearts.

“I love reading Nguyễn Ngọc Tư’s books because they introduce a very unique slice of the South’s culture and lifestyle,” said Trần Hoàng Minh Nhật, a first-year student of the HCM City University of Culture.

Tư was a winner at the National Youth Writing Competition, a contest aimed at writers under 20 years old, in 2000 organised by the HCM City Writers Association.

Her first book, Cánh Đồng Bất Tận (Endless Fields), was a bestseller as soon as it hit HCM City bookshops in 2005.

The book was also honoured with the Southeast Asian Writers Award in 2008. The award is given annually by the Thai Royal Family to encourage and honour poets and writers in Southeast Asia.

Tư has succeeded in impressing both young and older readers by focusing on rural life, featuring the simple lifestyle of farmers in her native province of Cà Mau.

She has released 30 books in different categories of fiction, short stories and poems.

Tư’s latest work is Biên Sử Nước (Water: A Chronicle), translated in English by Nguyễn An Lý and published by the London-based Major Books.

The book won the PEN Translates 2024, a prestigious literary prize that honours the best translations of literary works from around the world published in the English language, in July.

The PEN Translates award was established in 2012 with support from the Arts Council England to encourage UK publishers to seek out and promote books from a wider range of languages.

The novel Water: A Chronicle was published in Việt Nam in 2020.

It consists of 11 chapters, with the content presented in a circular, non-linear structure that lacks a definitive ending. Each chapter reads as an independent short story, based around a story of a great flood. — VNS