Trip to homeland inspires new book

A new book being launched on Friday will explore some of the pressing issues facing Vietnamese youth, including love and destiny.
 
Dr Kim Huynh from the School of Politics and International Relations in the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences was inspired to write his collection of fiction novellas Vietnam as if... Tales of Youth, Love and Destiny by a trip to his birth country, Vietnam, which he had left more than three decades earlier.
 
"The book is a collection of things I did and saw, people I met and stuff that I made up while living in Vietnam in 2011 and 2012," said Dr Huynh.
 
"Each story is told from the perspective of a talented, but sometimes angst-filled young person, and highlights big issues in present-day Vietnam like gender, politics and faith. They illustrate how Vietnamese youth are distinctive but also no different to youth everywhere."
 
The novellas that make up Vietnam as if... follow five young people who have moved from the countryside to the city. They also rework several classics of Vietnamese literature for the 21st century.
 
Dr Huynh said that he wanted to add more contemporary tales to Vietnam's rich and deep literary culture.
 
"I wrote this book in part for outsiders who are travelling to or researching Vietnam and want to get better sense of what young people are thinking and feeling."
 
Vietnam as if... Tales of Youth, Love and Destiny will be launched at 8am this Friday 25 September.
 
Guests will enjoy a free Vietnamese breakfast over Vietnamese pop music and photography. Register here.
 
The ebook can be downloaded for free from press.anu.edu.au/titles/vietnam-as-if