What a great book.
This book taught me a lot about the Vietnam war.
This is a well written book which revolves around two main characters.
A beautiful book.

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

This is definitely not an easy read as the book portrays story of a war-affected family. what makes it beautiful is the resilience and determination to survive despite of all the devastation. The books provide an insightful journey to Vietnam from which most of the foreign countries are unaware. It starts in Ha Noi with Huong and her grandmother running to save their lives and trying to find a shelter as it was being bombed by the American soldiers. This book is a must read for fans of historical fiction.

A story of the horrors of war and importance of family. I didn't love this as much as I wanted to but can see the importance of books like these. We lost a little of the granular details of daily life so that we could see the sweeping span of history and how it impacts one family.

My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Not for me. Nothing wrong with it, just the writing style was quite bland and I didn't feel interested enough to continue. DNF

The story was so interesting and heartbreaking, however, I found the writing style really not that engaging. Still, I enjoyed it well enough and found it interesting, even if I wish I had been pulled more in by the language.

A very powerful book reminded me of Pachinko and Homegoing in ways. It was really interesting to learn about Vietnam as I feel in the West historical fiction is very European. I would read from this author again!

Albeit family saga and historical fiction aren't genres I usually reach for, I really liked this book. So beautifully written and I learned so much from it. Very good book.

Beautifully written, this story is at times tragic but also an important insight into the numerous trials that Vietnamese people have suffered in recent generations. It also serves as a reminder that there is always hope and always love, no matter what.

This absolutely stunning novel is one of my favourite books this year. A family saga told through the eyes of different generations living and surviving in Vietnam during a period of great change, I could not put it down. It is a novel about human instinct and survival, even when the characters are at their lowest ebb. There is a lot of information about Vietnam that many western readers may not encounter from other sources, details about the living conditions and the injustices performed against the people. Many underreported outcomes from the Vietnam War are unveiled, which is at once utterly engrossing but also so very heartbreaking. I cannot wait to recommend this book to people.

This was a fascinating book. I didn't know enough about the history of Vietnam from the point of view of the Vietnamese people. The story spans multi generations, covering the horrors of war and of misguided communism. It's a powerful read of survival and post-trauma.

The Mountains Sing follows the story of a family from the 1940s onward through various troubled times in Vietnam. I'm not usually one for family sagas or historical fiction but this book is brilliant.
The star of the book is grandma, the descriptions of everything she went through are very shocking. I knew very little about the history of Vietnam before reading the book and I'm amazed at how much people went through in a relatively short time.
It could be an incredibly depressing and upsetting book, however, in fact it's a celebration of the strength of family, the resilience of people and the belief that there is always hope.

Thank you to Netgalley, Oneworld and Que Mai Phen Nguyen for this e-copy in return for my honest review. Before reading this book I knew little about the history of Vietnam. This is a sweeping family saga of strength in the face of adversity. Simply stunning.

Some of the more memorable fiction I have read lately was by two Vietnamese authors: Ocean Vuong’s “On Earth we are briefly gorgeous” and Viet Than Nguyen’s “The Sympathizers”. Nguyen Phan Que Mai’s historical literary novel “The Mountains Sing” is different from these two but fits into this category, an exceptional epic tale told in the Vietnamese storytelling tradition; I loved this book.

The tumultuous history of Vietnam is narrated by Tran Lieu Lan, the matriarch of the family and chief voice in the novel. Beginning with Tran’s birth in 1920, a time when Vietnam was still part of French Indochina, she, her family and her granddaughter Huong experience the upheaval millions of Vietnamese went through in a century. Tran Lieu has to flee their prosperous family farm with 6 young children after the communist land reform in the North causing the violent death of her husband. The disappearance of her eldest child and the lynching of her brother by rebel farmers send her on a desperate march to Hanoi where she hopes to improve her and her family’s fortune. The repeated unbearable loss, hunger and political turmoil experienced by three generations of the Tran family vividly portraits the suffering of the Vietnamese people during a century. When her children join the North Vietnamese army to fight the US troops, Tran is left to raise her grandchild Huong with whom she forms an unbreakable bond never giving up hope to be reunited with her six children.

The author does an excellent job through the voices of various characters showing the excruciating human cost and sacrifice political decisions and war have for ordinary people. During a trip to Vietnam a few years ago I was able to experience the beauty of this country and the toughness and resilience of the Vietnamese. Loved this very captivating read.

A Vietnamese family saga taking place during the Vietnam war, the Land Reform and communism. Telling the story of the Tran family, following the grandmother from when she had to escape with her children, making extremely difficult decisions on the way.
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The story is alternating between different time-points, going to the story of the grandmother or the granddaughter. We hear the stories of the whole family, what has happened to them and how the war has had a significant impact on the family.
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An extremely educating and at the same time gripping read. I learned a lot, at the same time I grew close with the characters and wanted to find out how the story ends. It is always difficult to draw parallels, but a lot of the escaping and propaganda stories reminded me of my own country, where people were driven out of their lands and how the communism gripped the land. This book goes to one of the top reads of the year for me. I will be suggesting it to a lot of people. Absolutely amazing work of fiction.
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Thank you Oneworld and Netgalley for my digital copy.

"A part of our country's history has been erased, together with the lives of countless people. We're forbidden to talk about events that relate to past mistakes or the wrongdoing of those in power, for they give themselves the right to rewrite history. But you're old enough to know that history will write itself in people's memories, and as long as those memories live on, we can have faith that we can do better."

The Mountains Sing is an intricate and sweeping family saga spanning twentieth century Vietnam. In the early 1970s, a young girl named Huong lives in Hanoi with her grandmother Dieu Lan, after her parents have disappeared to the South; her father is fighting in the war, feared missing, her mother is a medic and has gone to track him down.

Decades earlier, Dieu Lan is forced from her home due to land reform, as her farm is seized by communists. She manages to escape with her six children and seeks shelter hundreds of miles away, doing whatever she can to keep her family alive. As the chapters alternate between the two, the histories of grandmother and granddaughter are beautifully weaved together. A gripping and lyrical debut, The Mountains Sing is a heartbreaking read about family history and the power of hope.

I was gifted a free eARC* of this book by the publisher, via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

*eARC: electronic Advance Review Copy

TWs: War (violence, death, injuries, famine), murder, assault (including sexual).

Before I read this book, I knew woefully little about the events of the Việt Nam War. Now I feel like I have a better grasp on how the war affected the country and the Vietnamese people. It’s a topic I want to learn more about, so if you happen to know of any good nonfiction books that you could recommend, please let me know in the comments! I will of course also look some up myself. As you’ll have gathered, then, The Mountains Sing takes place during the Vietnam war, and follows the story of one particular family. The majority of the book doesn’t depict scenes of war as the protagonist, Hương, is a young girl, living with her grandmother after her uncles, father and mother are away. Her fathers and uncles were drafted into the war, while her mother went to look for her father, years after their last contact with him. Hương’s grandmother, Diệu Lan’s perspective, is also very prominent in the book as she tells her granddaughter about her experience as a young woman living in Việt Nam during the time of the communist government and land reform.

This is a very heavy book, particularly Diệu Lan’s sections, and I would definitely only recommend this to adult readers who feel comfortable reading books with the aforementioned trigger warnings. Diệu Lan’s story is scattered throughout the narrative, telling the story of the tragedies that befell her family when she was young. Her tale climaxes when her family farm is taken over during the Land Reform and she is forced to take her young children and flee, posing as a poor beggar to avoid being found to be a wealthy landlord and executed. By interspersing these heavy segments throughout the narrative, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai allows the reader respites from the horrific tragedies of Diệu Lan’s past. The ‘present day’ (though still for the reader historical) sections focus more on Hương, or Guava as her grandmother nicknames her.

The Hương chapters are often very heartwarming, yet still have the sense of danger, loss and despair that war brings. One of my favourite parts of the novel was reading the relationship between Hương and her grandmother. They have a very close relationship, and their love for one another and the rest of their family members was such a strong presence throughout the novel. Despite the war, and the fear, their lives must go on, and they manage to find elements of brightness to celebrate. The sense of longing for their family to be reunited is a really strong thread throughout the novel, and is the central theme that ties together the stories of Hương and Diệu Lan.

The writing of this book was really impressive, and I really want to read more by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai. It’s beautiful and lyrical, so I wasn’t surprised to learn that she has a poetic background. There are Vietnamese phrases throughout the novel, which is something I really like seeing included in books. This didn’t detract from the flow of the novel at all for me, and the writing was so strong and engaging throughout that I found it really hard to put this book down. The pacing of this book as well was really strong. So much happens in this book, but nothing felt rushed to me. It’s definitely faster paced than a lot of the books I read and I really liked reading something that’s quite different to what I usually pick up.

The characters in this story are all really interesting. I’m not Vietnamese so I obviously won’t comment on how accurate they may be, but as the author is Vietnamese I assume and hope that it is a good representation of the people and their culture. The family relationships depicted in The Mountains Sing were often very complex, which I really enjoyed reading. Despite secrets, miscommunications, political differences, separations and fights, their unconditional love (particularly on the part of Diệu Lan) is really evident. As well as being well-developed characters to start with, the characters’ development throughout the novel is some of the most well-written and engaging I’ve read for quite a while.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Mountains Sing, if you couldn’t tell. The subject matter is really heavy, but it’s a really important topic to write about. The writing, pacing and characters were just all so impressive, and I would love to read more novels by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai if she ever publishes them! She has previously published poetry, but this is her first novel.

If you enjoyed "First they killed my Father", you'll probably like this book as well.
I found the writing style not entirely to my liking. It felt that the author wanted to be poetic, but it came out forced and bits of story, cultural snippets and actual plotline were all mixed up in a way that I found hard to read.
There are a lot of proverbs and phrases in Vietnamese in the book. If you're like me and that pulls you out of the story, this book might not be right for you.
The story is important and harrowing, but ultimately it's not going to be one of my favourites.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

"Yet tougher still to be a writer enduring a lifetime on the path of truth" - words by Vietnamese poet Phung Quan are mentioned in this haunting novel and rightly so show that the writing down of a country's history through many generations reveal a wider picture of reality.
My son and daughter in law explored Asia for 8 months and liked Vietnam immensely speaking of the hustle and bustle of Hanoi, lots of men sitting around having beers and the incredible scenery on the train journeys across the country alongside its amazing pho soup!
All of those things and more (although there is much walking not train journeys) for Tran Dieu Lan and her granddaughter Huong in the sweeping family story. It covers periods from 1930 right up to 2012 and even in the forward to the book the author dedicates the words to her own grandmother who perished in the Great Hunger, her grandfather who died because of the Land Reform and her uncle whose youth was taken away by the Vietnam War.
Many of us may be familiar with the American's involvement in the Vietnam War 1961-1971 and it is sobering to even now watch the resultant physical and emotional trauma caused by Agent Orange on many generations of families who were sprayed by the toxic chemical. It was a war that ended a President (Nixon) but here it is not just that event that caused so much death and destruction. I had never heard of the Great Hunger or the Land Reforms which took from families their lands and livelihoods as political regimes once again (much through communism) to flatten and torture across the nation.
This is a harrowing read but the inclusion of the wonderment of Huong and others when children of their lives, love of family and strength to overcome hardship carries you through as a reader. Education, survival, love and in some cases even luck bring about endurance to overcome even the deadliest of worlds at war. Landscape, fauna, food, birds, rivers and even the sound of loving voices cast a hopeful cover over the horrors and bring us as readers to a happier place. Let us hope for that for Vietnam too.
This book once again shows us that humanity can survive.

I went to Vietnam in 2017 and fell in love with the place - this beautiful novel explores their tragic history in the 20th century. This multi generational tale benefits immensely from the author also being a skilful poet, the way this novel is crafted draws you in and absorbs you fully in the imagery, emotion and pace.

At the core, we have a family of immensely strong women. From grandmother, to mother, to daughter, they each have their own history and trauma and their relationships are tested continuously. But they do not break.

Tran Dieu Lan’s family lost everything after the Communist government came to power in North Vietnam in the early twentieth century. As a result of Land Reform, she was forced to flee with her six children. We switch between the grandmother's story and the grandaughter's story, the characters are the same but older, for the most part. The trauma and damage experienced in one era plays into the next. Huong watches her parents disappear down the Ho Chi Minh Trail to fight and the fall out from that is heartbreaking. She remains with her grandmother and together they survive bombing and everything else life throws at them.

The author bravely shares details that may have been lost in the history books over time but are still shared through generations of families.

“We’re forbidden to talk about events that relate to past mistakes or the wrongdoing of those in power, for they give themselves the right to rewrite history."

I am so glad to have read this novel. I feel educated and humbled. To think of the repeated trauma the Vietnamese people have been through in such recent times, the strength and resilience they have shown is truly humbling. I hope this novel gets the acclaim it deserves for bringing awareness of such an important historical era to the fore.

Published on August 20th 2020, thank you to @netgalley and @oneworldpublishers for the opportunity to review.

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