A review by lightsleeper_heavydreamer
The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

This was a wonderful family saga and I cried and learned a lot! The things I knew about Vietnamese history I mostly had from museums, this book brought history to life in all its tragedy, cruelty, all its sorrow and grief, all its persistence and kindness and love. At times this story is almost unbeatably sad and I felt so much for the family and everything they had to go through but it also managed to be hopeful throughout. The women here are so strong for their persistence and their unwillingness to give in or to lose their kindness. 
Highly recommended the audio book, there's so many Vietnamese proverbs in this and   hearing them spoken by a Vietnamese speaker and not just reading them wrongly in my head.
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