Synopses & Reviews
“Night, Again is fresh, invigorating work. Taken all together, these brief prose pieces have the scope of a fine novel.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Not only are these stories, almost without exception, very strong on purely literary grounds, but they also provide an invaluable firsthand documentation of a society undergoing rapid change.”—The Times Literary Supplement
“Unsentimental and sensual, the stories in Night, Again are imbued with sly wit and haunting music. The range of style and subject matter is impressive. Out of the ruins of war, these living writers demonstrate their profound resilience, poetic vision, and luminous artistry.”—Jessica Hagedorn
“Carefully chosen stories from writers whose styles and subject matter exhibit real range. . . . [T]hese pieces suggest a nuanced and decidedly polyvalent view of Vietnam.”—A. Magazine
“A forceful and stunning compendium by a talented editor, Night, Again is unquestionably one of the finest literary entries in years from the new Asia and is essential for modern Asia-Pacific collections.”—Choice
Praised for its documentary importance and literary brilliance when it was first published in 1996 and now updated with two new stories, Night, Again offers us the unique opportunity to see the Vietnamese through their own eyes and surprises us with its playfully ironic portraits.
Awarded a Pew Fellowship in 1993 and hosted in Certaldo, Italy, as a guest of the International Parliament of Writers and of Cities of Asylum, Linh Dinh is an accomplished author, poet, and translator. He has written two collections of stories, Fake House and Blood and Soap, and two books of poems, All Around What Empties Out and American Tatts. His work has been anthologized in The Best American Poetry 2000, The Best American Poetry 2004, and Great American Prose Poems: From Poe to the Present.
Synopsis
A Choice Outstanding Academic Book of the Year--a groundbreaking collection now including two new stories.
Synopsis
A couple's scheme to get rich by killing their father backfires, leaving them in charge of a cripple. In heaven, a baby, dead through neglect, tells his playmates: "Life down there is just one long sleep." A young soldier, saved by a stranger, can never again find her to thank her. A man carries a massive clock. Using a variety of techniques and styles, in this collection of twelve short stories contemporary Vietnamese writers—edited by poet, short story writer, and novelist Linh Dinh—show us Vietnam through their own eyes. Night, Again breaks with the traditional views of the Vietnamese that have focused on the Vietnam War and turns our attention to postwar life in Vietnam. These writers present impressions--at once strange and familiar--of postwar realities.
About the Author
A recipient of the Pew Foundation grant, the David T. Wong Fellowship, a Lannan Residency and the Asian American Literary Award, LINH DINH is the author of two collections of stories, Fake House (Seven Stories Press, 2000) and Blood and Soap (Seven Stories Press, 2004), five books of poems, All Around What Empties Out (2003), American Tatts (2005), Borderless Bodies (2006), Jam Alerts (2007) and Some Kind of Cheese Orgy (2009), and the novel Love Like Hate (Seven Stories Press 2010). His work has been anthologized in Best American Poetry 2000, 2004, and 2007, and in Great American Prose Poems from Poe to the Present, among other places. Linh Dinh is also the editor of the anthologies Night, Again: Contemporary Fiction from Vietnam (1996) and Three Vietnamese Poets (2001), and translator of Night, Fish and Charlie Parker, the poetry of Phan Nhien Hao (2006). Blood and Soap was chosen by the Village Voice as one of the Best Books of 2004. He has also published widely in Vietnamese.