“Students on the Other Side of Tam Giang Lagoon” are childhood memories of writer and journalist Phi Tan. 32 leisurely essays recall the pure memories of the village, the place associated with the author’s student years.
With “Students on the Other Side of Tam Giang Lagoon”, readers get to know another aspect of Hue. Not the ancient and glorious Hue, but a very simple Hue with stories about squash, sweet potatoes, fixing bikes, getting haircuts, fishing, fishing, night-watching and the personal stories of poor schoolboys and girls.
Moonless nights and even stormy days, the sound of autumn drums not coming to winter afternoons or Tet holidays… from the images of relatives such as grandparents, parents to neighbors, childhood friends or villagers are mentioned by the author with a passionate affection, especially the images of village school teachers including Ms. Ngoc, Mr. Hoang, Mr. Hap…
Writer Phi Tan does not exploit the strange, he evokes sympathy from readers through his Hue-like, intimate writing style. He is also very subtle when using "pure Hue" vocabulary to create just enough local color for readers to feel without losing emotion when having to stop too long to look up the meaning of words.
"Hue people tell Hue stories" is a collection of historical anecdotes about famous people, literary anecdotes, and folklore anecdotes about Hue people and Hue land collected and retold by writer Le Vu Truong Giang.
Each character appearing in the book has a common characteristic, they are famous people, famous scholars of Hue and their stories honor the people of Hue. 34 stories about nearly 30 people of Hue, told by writer Le Vu Truong Giang from today's perspective.
In addition to retelling, the author has detailed and thorough explanations to help readers better understand the story and characters.
The launch of the above two works is also the first activity on the occasion of the opening of Kim Dong bookstore in Hue city.
Ms. Vu Thi Quynh Lien - Deputy Director, Editor-in-Chief of Kim Dong Publishing House said: "With the establishment of the bookstore in Hue, we hope to inspire and attract more writers from Hue and organize many activities to make this place a cultural attraction for readers."
