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ONLINE ONLY Sisters: The Library Book Club

Event Type: Adult Program
Age Group(s): Adult
Date: 7/22/2020
Start Time: 5:30 PM
End Time: 6:30 PM
Description:
 Discussing The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai online via zoom.

Nguyễn's lyrical, sweeping debut novel (after the poetry collection The Secret of Hoa Sen) chronicles the Tran family through a century of war and renewal. As middle-aged writer Hương revisits her native Hanoi in 2012, she reflects on the lessons shared by her late grandmother Diệu Lan ("The challenges faced by Vietnamese people throughout history are as tall as the tallest mountains. If you stand too close, you won't be able to see their peaks") and chronicles their journey of survival during the Vietnam War. Hương was 12 when bombs encroached on Hanoi, where she lived with Diệu Lan after her mother, Ngọc, a physician, left to search for her father, a soldier in the NVA. After an evacuation to the mountains, Diệu Lan "opened the door of her childhood" to Huoung with stories of being raised by a wealthy family to pursue an education and resist old customs such as blackening her teeth. Diệu Lan also describes the harrowing truth of the Việt Minh Land Reform, during which her family's land was seized in the spirit of resource distribution, encouraging her to question what she's been taught in schools.
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Join The Library Book Club online via the zoom link below.
https://zoom.us/j/95922424438

Library: Sisters Public Library
Contact: Paige Bentley-Flannery
Contact Number: 5416177078
Presenter: Community Librarian, Paige Bentley-Flannery
Link: Click here to join The Library Book Club.