Nguyen Thanh Hien's Books

Chronicles of a Village

By: Nguyen Thanh Hien

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An incantatory poetic novel that interweaves the legends, tragedies, and histories of a village in Vietnam "The book bursts with characters, poetry, philosophy, romance, violence, and struggle. . . . A dreamlike, original, strangely hopeful book."—Kirkus Reviews At the foot of Mun Mountain in central Vietnam, a self-appointed scribe collects the stories of his neighbors—tales of love, nature, and war—and weaves them into a surrealist history of their farming community. In crystalline fragments resembling prose poems, the scribe eternalizes the vanishing beauty and tragic transformation of the village—its sacred forests, astonishing animals, mythical figures, and human lives nurtured by a profound love for soil and sky, as well as its catastrophes: ecological destruction, political purges, asphyxiating modernity, violence, and indoctrination in the name of progress. Nguyen Thanh Hien's, Chronicles of a Village, the writer’s first work to be translated into English, is an elegy for a place and a people; a profound meditation on how history is created, destroyed, manipulated, and rewritten; and a tribute to the beauty and "fatal historical disabilities of a land.

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Page Count

145

Publisher

Yale University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

030027839X

ISBN 13

9780300278392

The Miracle of Hope

Political Prisoner, Prophet of Peace

By: Andre Nguyen

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The Miracle of Hope

Political Prisoner, Prophet of Peace

By: Andre Nguyen

Written by a personal friend of Cardinal Thuan, this moving biography—containing over 70 photographs and writing excerpts—chronicles the life of the man Pope John Paul II said was “...marked by a heroic configuration with Christ on the cross.” From a prisoner in a communist jail cell to a leader of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace in Rome, Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan remained a man of unshakable faith and undying hope.

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Page Count

349

Publisher

Pauline Books and Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

0819848808

ISBN 13

9780819848802

In Search of Moral Authority

The Discourse on Poverty, Poor Relief, and Charity in French Colonial Vietnam

By: Van Nguyen-Marshall

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In Search of Moral Authority

The Discourse on Poverty, Poor Relief, and Charity in French Colonial Vietnam

By: Van Nguyen-Marshall

In Search of Moral Authority: The Discourse on Poverty, Poor Relief, and Charity in French Colonial Vietnam is a pioneering exploration of the discourses on poverty and poor-relief activities in early twentieth-century Northern Vietnam. Treating poverty as a socially constructed idea, Van Nguyen-Marshall argues that poor relief was a domain where both French colonialists and Vietnamese intellectuals vied for moral authority. For the French colonial officials, poor relief fell within the purview of the French «civilizing» mission, the official justification for imperialism. However, the colonial agenda, racial prejudices, and the French administrators' own ambivalent attitudes toward the poor made any attempt at poor relief doomed for failure. For Vietnamese intellectuals, the discourse and activities on poor relief became a rallying call for patriotism, nationalism, and, for some, anti-colonialism. In Search of Moral Authority deals with social issues such as charity and poor relief, as well as the construction of national and gender identity by Vietnamese intellectuals. This book is essential reading for students and specialists of Vietnamese history as well as those interested in issues of poverty, public welfare, and charity.

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