The Mountains Sing

By: Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai

Narrated by: Quyen Ngo

Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

With the epic sweep of Min Jin Lee's Pachinko and Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing and the lyrical beauty of Vaddey Ratner's In the Shadow of the Banyan, The Mountains Sing tells an enveloping, multigenerational tale of the Trần family, set against the backdrop of the Việt Nam War.

Trần Diệu Lan, who was born in 1920, was forced to flee her family farm with her six children during the Land Reform as the Communist government rose in the North. Years later in Hà Nội, her young granddaughter, Hương, comes of age as her parents and uncles head off down the Hồ Chí Minh Trail to fight in a conflict that tore not just her beloved country, but her family apart.

Vivid, gripping, and steeped in the language and traditions of Việt Nam, The Mountains Sing brings to life the human costs of this conflict from the point of view of the Vietnamese people themselves, while showing us the true power of kindness and hope. The Mountains Sing is celebrated Vietnamese poet Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai's first novel in English.

©2020 Dreamscape Media, LLC (P)2020 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Expansive. Poetic. Moving.

Simply presented, the whole of the tragedy the Vietnamese people endured. And they did endure.

Swells with Love despite Tragedy

I feel like this is the book I've been waiting to find my whole life. Real uncensored tragedy saturated with real unexaggerated hope, love, and compassion.

This may be the best book I've ever read. It's the clearest picture of a real life (several generations actually, with plenty of uncles and aunts too).

The events and characters are so real and three dimensional, it feels like they're a part of my family.

It's the clearest illustration of how conflict can separate family, break communities, and overthrow peace. It's also the BEST I've ever seen at revealing how hope and empathy can help desperate people survive and thrive, how free help transforms lives who need it most, how families find each other, and how there's always wonderful things about our lives to cherish.

It's crazy how a safe neighborhood can flip overnight, and this was captured so clearly. But the biggest astonishment that returned again and again was how kind strangers were to each other. Not all strangers were kind of course, some were horrible, but most were just remarkable! It really shows you that all hope is never lost, and you can make a big difference in someone's life by showing kindness.

I'm not Vietnamese, I'm American, but I feel it captured the essence of feelings on both sides. I can completely empathize with North and South Vietnamese sides, and my heart resonates with their wishes to end wars and suffering.

Beyond all that, the prose is poetic, since the author is a poet. That makes it such a joy to read, as she points out the beauty of the landscape, the people, and the children. Yet happily she doesn't go overboard either.

I am such a fan of this book, I really can't say enough except I'm definitely going to have my son read this when he's a teenager, and if I were an English professor or high school teacher I'd ask all my students to read it, to get a real authentic account of the experiences and consequences of major decisions, from the individual all the way to national decisions.

Highly recommended.

Amazing, beautiful look at the best and worst of humanity

This is an amazing, remarkably non-judgmental book about one Vietnamese family’s experience from the French occupation to the near present. It is a look at war by survivors of war, a tribute to forgiveness. This is a beautiful, lyrical, troubling but optimistic look at a magical, amazing family and people.

Hard to beat

Narration added so much but the story itself provides so much insight to a culture little known to US citizens; the other side of the coin. So touching
Highly recommend

Touching story to understand history

The story is moving and engaging. It kept me engaged and wanting to find out what happens to each family member. I did feel that certain aspects were a bit amateurish, but overall it was very well written. I am familiar with this history and the damage done by all sides (I was one of the protesters in the US of the Vietnam War), but I suspect that many younger listeners might be less aware. For me, there was nothing shocking that I didn’t know (agent orange from the US, for example, or the “reeducation camps” by the Communists), but presenting this information from the perspective of a family is effective. The narration was well done, and, given that I don’t know Vietnamese, I can only surmise that it was authentic, which added an element that I would not have had if I read the book in print. I do wish the narrator would have done a better job of distinguishing voices, and unfortunately she does not do a good job with men’s voices at all. Overall, I do recommend this book.

Beautifully written

A beautifully written memoir that tells a different story of Vietnam. The author’s story is almost poetic in its descriptions as it sheds light on the land and the people who were at war and disrupted by the atrocities of war brought on by outside nations for decades. It is amazing that despite the ravages of war, family is a bond that transcends devastation. Despite my own personal loss during the Vietnam war I finished the book feeling a closeness and empathy with the characters in their losses during that same time period.

So very glad I listened

How does one forgive? Yet you can not move forward if you can not forgive. This is a beautiful, sad, moving history of one family in Viet Nam in the 20th century

One of my favorites

Though tragic- it is heartbreakingly beautiful in the simplicity of the story telling, even when dealing with the horrific details of human tragedy, war, grief, suffering. I love that it’s told as a story from the main character’s grandmother to her. Even among the tragedies, I was struck by the continuous beauty woven through the story of hope, family, and friends and strangers alike who would risk their lives to help others.

A beautiful story that will stay with me for years to come.

Good Story

Very loving story about a Vietameze family in North Vietnam during the war. It was good reading. Some parts were very sad. The narrator made the story much better. A good read and I would recommend it especially veterans of the war.

A Tale of Courage, Faith, Family

Oh what Courage, Hope, Persistence, Faith, Family in a North Vietnamese generational family. War stinks!!