Novel about young to be launched in Hà Nội

September 26, 2018 - 08:00

A novel by Nguyễn Huy Thiệp has been published in Việt Nam for the first time since it was released in France 13 years ago.

Tuổi 20 Yêu Dấu (The Beloved Age 20)—a novel by Nguyễn Huy Thiệp.— Photo toquoc.vn
Viet Nam News

HÀ NỘI — A novel by Nguyễn Huy Thiệp has been published in Việt Nam for the first time since it was released in France 13 years ago.

Tuổi 20 yêu dấu (The Beloved Age 20) will be launched at the French Culture Centre L’Espace in Hà Nội on Wednesday.

The book tells the story of a man named Khuê, a 20-year-old college student whose father was a famous writer.

After being kicked out of home, he embarks on his own adventures, and is nearly beaten to deathe and thrown off on an island. For the first time, Khuê experiences true independence but has to struggle with self-sufficiency.

Thiệp said it took one month to write the book while he was staying on Cát Bà Island in 2002.

"When I write, I often put the readers between boundaries of good or bad; right or wrong, let them perceive themselves. I am interested in writing about youth. When we’re young, the world is open," Thiệp said.

Thiệp was born in Hà Nội in 1950 but spent most of his first ten years in the rural areas of northwestern Việt Nam.

He focuses on writing short stories on a diverse array of subjects including history and literature with legendary fairy tales, contemporary Vietnamese society, rural village communities and labourers.

Thiệp also writes poems and dramatic scripts, and has had his works translated into French, English, Italian, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, German, Korean, Japanese and Indonesian.

Writer Nguyễn Huy Thiệp. — Photo nguyenhuythiep.free.fr

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