The Crystal MessengerThis award winning book has been described as the 'renaissance of Vietnamese literature'. Written by a young woman in her twenties at the end of an era when Vietnam closed itself off from the world, it is widely regarded as one of the most important works of fiction ever to come out of that country. Ostensibly, The Crystal Messenger is a magical and moving story of two sisters' journeys to emotional and sexual maturity. But it is also a powerful allegory about the fate of North and South Vietnam, the struggle with reunification after the war, and the effect of consumerism and westernisation on the nation's soul. Published in Vietnamese and also German, French, Spanish, Italian and Finnish, The Crystal Messenger has now become an international publishing phenomenon. This volume is the first English language edition of this extraordinary work to be published anywhere in the world. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - tomattic - LibraryThingAn extraordinary magical story of North and South Vietnam seen through the lives of twin sisters, Crystal Messenger is one of the most interesting modern South East Asian novels. Read full review
Common terms and phrases
125 centimetres beautiful became become began bicycle pump body born to belong breathing brother Hac Brownian Motion cards CHAPTER child cigarette cold crowd Crystal Messenger Da Lat dark door dreams everything eyes face fate father feeling finger firecrackers flesh flowers forbidden garden forever four hundred brown funeral girl hair hand Hang's Hanoi happy Homosapiens-A huge human hundred brown squares husband ice-king kisses laugh lips litde little Hoai live look lottery agent minute minute to zero Moon Goddess mother never night numbers numbers-game once parents Pham Thi Hoai poet poetry Quang the dwarf red armband returned Rubik cube Saigon sister Hang smile stood stopped street Teacher Hoang terrible things third-rate three hundred tion toilet paper took turned twin sister Victor Hugo Vietnam waiting wedding window woman writing young zero hour
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Crystal Messenger |
| Authors | Hoai Pham Thi, Thị Hoài Phạm |
| Publisher | Hyland House, 1997 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | May 15, 2008 |
| ISBN | 1875657711, 9781875657711 |
| Length | 146 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |