For readers Min Jin Lee and Lisa See
A family saga about human endurance, the fragility of family ties and determination. The journey of a mother who sacrifices everything for her children, and the convoluted journey of a granddaughter coping with inherited family burdens.
The book The Mountains Sing is the story of several generations of the Tran family, mapping almost an entire century of Vietnamese history - from French colonial rule to the rise of the Viet Minh liberation leftist movement, the division of the country into northern and southern parts, the war in Vietnam to the present day. We follow the turbulent history of the country through the eyes of the tenacious Dieu Lan and her granddaughter Huong.
Dieu Lan, born in 1920, loses almost everything she had in her life - her father, her husband, her brother and her eldest son. During the land reform, all of her family's property is confiscated, and she and her six children must flee the family farm for their bare lives. But he endures turbulent historical changes and shortages with pride and kindness.
In the 1970s in Hanoi, she deals in the black market to ensure more dignified living conditions for her loved ones and the entire community. Her granddaughter Huong is coming of age just as her relatives go off to fight in a conflict that will tear her beloved country and family apart. The war in Vietnam was not only an international ideological clash, but also a civil war between relatives.