Vietnamese-English anthology hopes to send Vietnamese literature to Swedish book fair

Hanoi Publishing House gives foreign readers access to Vietnamese literature with their recently released bilingual Vietnamese-English anthology of short stories. According to local media, Vietnam Net Global, Hanoi Publishing House also hopes that the new book, ‘Một Đêm Mưa Trong Thành Phố’ (A Rainy Night in the City) will make it to prestigious international book fairs in, among others, Gothenburg (Sweden), Kolkata (India), and Frankfurt (Germany).  

The publication is co-edited by novelist Ho Anh Thai and American writer-poet Paul Christiansen and sponsored by the Hanoi Department of Information and Communications. A Rainy Night in the City consists of stories by authors from different generations and is aimed at those who appreciate literature. Over the past few decades, Vietnamese authors have only reached foreign audiences via the publication of several notable works selected and released by foreign publishers but it is hoped that this book will send Vietnamese literature to readers in the Nordic, Europe, and the U.S. 

It features the works of writers before the August Revolution in 1945, members of the post-war generation even writers who emerged in the early 21st century, like Nguyen Ngoc Thuan. The settings of the stories stretch from the capital Hanoi to the northern, central, and southern regions.

With A Rainy Night in the City, Hanoi Publishing House is actively seeking to introduce quality Vietnamese literature abroad, without waiting passively for foreign publishers.