Tales from a Mountain City is a blend of history and memoir told by a young Vietnamese girl growing up during the last years of the war and the communist regime.This is a poignant account of the innocence of a child, the innocence of a people, shattered again and again by the cruel tides of power and dogma, clinging tenaciously to their traditions, their home provinces, their hometowns, until the sheer pervasiveness of a communist value system drives them to suicide or exile.
Indirectly, this story raises many questions on nationalism and qualities of power, freedom and independence, human rights and human nature.
'Surprisingly, the author imbues this gruelling tale with lightness and charm appropriate to the naivety of a child. This is an effective device that cloaks the reader in the same ignorance and innocence and, as in
The Diaries of Anne Frank,
finds a path through the terrible histories shielded from the absolute atrocities that is war.'
Driftwood