What readers think of The Mountains Sing, plus links to write your own review.

I have spent time in Vietnam (both North and South). I knew Vietnam had a long storied past. I knew there were challenges in Vietnam's history I hadn't been taught in school. I knew the Vietnamese were strong people.

So, I thought I was ready for this book...I wasn't.

The Mountains Sing is a heart-wrenching novel tracing a portion of Vietnam's history through the stories of Dieu Lan, her granddaughter, Huong (called Guava), and their families. (Fortunately, there's a family tree in the front to help track family members as you read.)

Despite the heavy topics, it's a fast read--the characters are well-developed and you care about their stories. (I finished the book in two sittings--mostly because I needed to take a mental break.)

Vietnam's history comes to life through the personal stories--stories of struggle through the Great Hunger, Land Reform, what Westerners know as the Vietnam War, and other moments in Vietnam's past. Scenery--small villages, mountains, jungles, and big cities--are easily envisioned through the descriptions. And cultural lessons are sprinkled throughout--proverbs, superstitions, meanings of Vietnamese words and names.

I finished this book a few days ago and haven't quite been able to let it go. The Mountains Sing is a meaningful piece of historical fiction--one that is meant to be shared, discussed, and learned from.

The reader embarks on a journey through 70 years of Vietnam's turbulent political history. The story is about four generations of the Tran family and told through the eyes of a grandmother and her granddaughter. The reader follows the Tran family through times of wealth, poverty, famine, political unrest and war. The words are beautifully written with the promise of hope for the future, the strength of family ties and the power of forgiveness guiding the story. A great book for anyone who enjoys historical fiction, would like to learn more about Vietnam or is in a book club!

With power and poetry, Nguyen Phan Que Mai guided me onto lands and into cultures I had never before experienced. Her power was wielded by an excellent use of English, her second language. Poetry flowed from her Grandmother's songs and stories. The lives of three generations, revealed through the voices of grandmother and granddaughter, unfold in the turmoil of never-ending war. Her fresh imagery reflects a constant dependence on the earth for survival, passed down through generations of farmers.

Nguyen Phan invited me in to meet her people, to experience their joy, suffer their pain and understand their struggle to keep the dream of cultural survival alive. Wave after wave of community reorganization swept families caught in the currents of violence and cruelty from north to south and back again. The story covers time and events from 1930 to 1980 but not in chronological order. The time changes are clearly designated and further reflect the total disruption of life that took place, during the twentieth century, in Vietnam.

This beautifully written historical novel tells the 20th century Vietnamese history of conflict, famine, and corruption, through the lives of a resilient and loving grandmother, born in 1920, and her granddaughter, born in 1960, who long for a world without war. Their struggles to survive, and stay a family, portray the impact war can have for many generations. For those of us who grew up during the American war in Vietnam, it is powerful that this story is told from the perspective of a family in North View Nam. There are moments of kindness and generosity in the midst of devastation which help sustain the Tran family. Huong, the granddaughter remains hopeful: "Somehow I was sure if people were willing to read each other, and see the light of other cultures, there would be no war on earth." Perhaps this story can inspire us to greater understanding and acceptance of each other.

No story of a war can be told in black and white, one side right and one wrong yet that is how such things are often viewed. Perhaps we've not stepped away far enough to allow for a more sympathetic view of Viet Nam. The Mountains Sing provides a view of the culture, history, language, and family life that is completely enthralling. The reader is drawn into the heart of the country and its struggles through the family trying to do more than just survive, but to live with love and hope,The examples of respect and honors for ancestors, devotion to family, and persistence in the face of incredible odds are lessons for all. The hope and love shine through in this emotionally fulfilling novel. I look forward to hearing more from Nguyen Phan Que Mai either in new books or translations of some of her previous works.

I am familiar with the Vietnam war only from an American perspective. This story is beautifully and compellingly told by Nguyen Phan Que Mai whose family lived through Vietnam's 20th century history starting with the Land Reform, Communist rule and the Vietnam war.

Through a grandmother and granddaughter's stories we learn how three generations of one family were affected by politics and war Their neighbors turn on them and one another; crops and forests were being destroyed and family members turned against one another. This is an intimate telling of a family's beliefs, culture, struggles, loss and despair and through it all the ever present love and hope.

A beautifully written tragic story of countries at war and the families that suffered. Here, in the United States, we have not seen war for over 150 years. For most of us, war happens there, not here. We read about it and care about it, but we do not live it. Fortunate is a word not strong enough for most of us living in America.

Nguyen Phan Que Mai gives us characters with depth and a story line that is filled with action, insight, and discovery. Written in first person and unfolding back and forth between two time periods, it sometimes took me a page or two to figure out who was talking. The family tree was very helpful, and it might have been a bit more so had there been a pronunciation guide for Vietnamese script. Regardless, these are people I will remember for a long time.

Thank you for a wonderful read. I will share this treasure with my friends.

Nguyen Phan Que Mai's "The Mountains Sing" is a heart-wrenching story of three generations of women devastated by war. In the same vein as "All Quiet On The Western Front," we learn about the Vietnam War from the prospective of the North Vietnamese, our "enemy," and discover again that war hurts all, and that there are no winners. I was especially awed by the strength, courage and intelligence of Tran Diet Lan, the matriarch of the Tran family. She shares her story with her young granddaughter, Huong, whose father has not returned from the war and whose mother is traumatized by her own war experiences. There is no one in the family not touched by the evils of war. But they have such strong love for each other. "The Mountains Sing" is truly inspiring.