Vietnamese cover of 'Dust Child'. Photos Nhã Nam Publisher

HÀ NỘI  Award-winning Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai has brought her words home, launching her second novel in Vietnamese in Hà Nội and HCM City, after its release in multiple languages worldwide.

Entitled Đời Gió Bụi (Dust Child), the novel was first published in English in 2023 and quickly became an international bestseller. It has so far been translated into 14 languages across 20 countries and has garnered multiple prestigious international literary awards.

A richly poetic and suspenseful saga, the book follows the intertwined lives of two Vietnamese sisters, an American veteran and an Amerasian man, set against the turbulent years during and after the war in Việt Nam.

Immersive, moving and lyrical, Dust Child tells an unforgettable story of how those who inherited tragedy can redefine their destinies with hard-won wisdom, compassion, courage and joy.

“When I was young, books were the boats that carried me from a poor rural life into the vast abundance of the world," Quế Mai said. "I always dreamed of travelling the world through stories, and today it is a great honour that my novels can reach places I have never had the chance to visit.

“Although the novel has been published in many languages, I feel most nervous about the Vietnamese version because Vietnamese is my homeland, my roots and the cradle that nurtured and shaped who I am.”

Quế Mai spent seven years researching and writing Dust Child. After a long international journey, the novel has now been officially introduced to Vietnamese readers in a translation by the author herself, in collaboration with translator Thiên Nga, with the aim of delivering the most complete and emotionally faithful version possible.

The novel has received several international honours, including winner of the 2025 One Book One Lincoln, winner of the 2023 She Reads Best Historical Fiction Award, the French Prix Créteil en poche 2025 for Best Foreign Novel and being named a Best Book of the season by the Los Angeles Times, Library Journal and Cosmopolitan, among other notable accolades..

"Although the original work was written in English, a deep love for Việt Nam, its land and people shines through every page of the book," said writer Trần Thùy Mai.

Born in the northern province of Ninh Bình and raised in the southern province of Bạc Liêu, now Cà Mau Province, Quế Mai is one of the most prominent Vietnamese writers on the international literary scene. She writes in both Vietnamese and English and is the author of 13 books.

In 2021, she was named by Forbes Việt Nam as one of the country’s 20 most inspirational women.

Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai meets readers and signs books at the launch.

Beyond literary success, Quế Mai has pledged to donate 100 per cent of the royalties from the Vietnamese edition of the novel to help build libraries in remote and mountainous schools.

She has already transferred all royalties from the book’s first print run and mobilised additional contributions from readers overseas, raising a total of US$5,359, nearly VNĐ140 million, for the non-profit organisation Room to Read.

The funds have been used by Room to Read Việt Nam to establish and operate a Room to Read library at Trần Quốc Toản Primary School in Cà Mau Province.

Dust Child will also be released in Macedonian, Serbian, Arabic, Indonesian, and Lithuanian. VNS