Nguyen Phan Que Mai with her latest work 'The Mountains Sing' (Photo courtesy of the author)

“The Mountains Sing” is a story about historical events through the perspective of members of four generations of the Tran family. The book not only clearly depicts the pain of loss and separation brought about by war, but it praises family love, the value of hope, and forgiveness.

Mai said when she decided to write the novel directly in English, she wanted to contribute the voice of Vietnamese people to the global literary forum. She writes about war to call for peace, writes about loss and separation to talk about the value of reunion.

Mai added poetry, proverbs, cuisine, and cultural traditions of the Vietnamese people into her work to introduce world readers to a Vietnam rich in identity.

In addition, the 48-year-old writer tries to preserve the richness of the Vietnamese language by asking publishers to print the names of Vietnamese characters and sentences in the book with full Vietnamese tones.

The award ceremony is scheduled to take place in Dayton, the US, on November 13.