Novel
The Sorrow of War
Nỗi buồn chiến tranh
Bảo Ninh · 1990
Synopsis
Ten years after the fighting, Kiên travels through the jungle with the team tasked with recovering the bones of his comrades. Back in Hanoi, he begins to write, but the book escapes him: the episodes return out of order, and the war is constantly mingled with Phương, the girl he loved at school and lost on the day she went with him to the train of departure.
Context
Written in 1987, the book appeared in 1990 with the writers' publishing house, but under a title that it imposed, “Thân phận của tình yêu”, the destiny of love, gentler than that of the author. The Union's award came to it in 1991; three years later the Communist Review attacked this distinction, reproaching the author with sullying the war against the Americans, and the leadership had to explain itself in writing before its fifth congress. The intended title returned to the cover only much later. Frank Palmos and Phan Thanh Hảo produced an English version in 1994, from which several of the later ones derived.
Who it is for
About three hundred pages, in Vietnamese. The narrative follows no order: one must accept losing the thread of time, which is the very subject of the book.
Prizes and reception
Awarded a prize by the writers' union in 1991, then disowned by it under pressure; since read in eighteen languages and in twenty-two countries.