Hai Truyen Tu -- Two Prison Life Stories; Nguyen Chi Thien's prose in bilingual text (Paperback)

~ Nguyen Chi Thien (Author), (Author), General Editor (Editor), Tran Trung Ngoc (Editor), Christopher McCooey (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Review

This essential book weaves Thien's remarkable life story explicitly into the narrative of modern Vietnamese literature, Dan Duffy, Director, Viet Nam Literature Project. -- --Viet Nam Studies Group November 3008<br /><br />Together with Nguyen Chi Thien's first edition of prison poems in English, Flowers from Hell/Hoa Dia Nguc (New Haven, CT: Council on Southeast Asia Studies, Yale University, 1984), translated by the late Huynh Sanh Thong, and his newest publication released in late 2008, Hai Truyen Tu/Two Prison Life Stories: Prose in Bilingual Text (Palo Alto, CA: Nhan Quyen Tai Viet Nam Series No. 1, Allies for Freedom, 2008), the author re-emerges as an iconic dissident writer whose personal history is as complex and vivid as his aesthetics. Professor Mariam Lam, University of California, Riverside --Journal of Vietnamese Studies, February 2009<br /><br />Together with Nguyen Chi Thien's first edition of prison poems in English, Flowers from Hell/Hoa Dia Nguc (New Haven, CT: Council on Southeast Asia Studies, Yale University, 1984), translated by the late Huynh Sanh Thong, and his newest publication released in late 2008, Hai Truyen Tu/Two Prison Life Stories: Prose in Bilingual Text (Palo Alto, CA: Nhan Quyen Tai Viet Nam Series No. 1, Allies for Freedom, 2008), the author re-emerges as an iconic dissident writer whose personal history is as complex and vivid as his aesthetics. Professor Mariam Lam, University of California, Riverside --Journal of Vietnamese Studies, February 2009

Together with Nguyen Chi Thien's first edition of prison poems in English, Flowers from Hell/Hoa Dia Nguc (New Haven, CT: Council on Southeast Asia Studies, Yale University, 1984), translated by the late Huynh Sanh Thong, and his newest publication released in late 2008, Hai Truyen Tu/Two Prison Life Stories: Prose in Bilingual Text (Palo Alto, CA: Nhan Quyen Tai Viet Nam Series No. 1, Allies for Freedom, 2008), the author re-emerges as an iconic dissident writer whose personal history is as complex and vivid as his aesthetics. Professor Mariam Lam, University of California, Riverside --Journal of Vietnamese Studies, February 2009

Product Description

Two prose works by Nguyen Chi Thien in bilingual text -- English and Vietnamese. The narratives are of prison conditions in Communist Vietnam. The author was a political prisoner in North Vietnam for twenty-seven years between 1961 and 1991. He won the Rotterdam International Poetry prize while in prison in 1985 and it was not known if he were alive or dead.

The two prison life stories are based on his experiences and interactions with other prisoners. One is a story of intellectual prisoners -- poets -- composing in their minds because they were not allowed pen and paper. The second is the story of a young woman on death row for killing a security officer in Hanoi who had harassed her. It is a love story as such events happen in prison. It is also the Old Man's (the author) philosophy of eternal life and hope expressed to The Maiden.

Photographs of the Hanoi Central Prison Museum were donated for the author's benefit by Christopher McCooey of Kyoto, Japan. This edition includes bilingual biographical and publishing history of the Vietnamese dissident poet Nguyen Chi Thien.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 170 pages
• Publisher: Allies for Freedom publishers; Nhan Quyen tai Viet Nam Series edition (October 20, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977363864
• ISBN-13: 978-0977363865
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
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• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,016,421 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)