Hanoi at Midnight

Of the twelve short stories appearing in Hà Nội at Midnight, ten are appearing in English for the first time. Bringing to life the full range of Bảo Ninh's inventive and poetic language, Quan Manh Ha and Cab Tran are granting to English readers Bảo Ninh's first book-length work since The Sorrow of War. Hà Nội and Midnight delineates the complex outpourings of war and the way it remakes our relation to each other. Bảo Ninh's stories accentuate the gamut of human emotions: nostalgia, anguish, desolation, melancholy, poignancy, and hope. His stories wistfully render pre-war Hà Nội, its peaceful alleys and streets, its courteous residents, and the cozy atmosphere when family members, neighbors, and friends gather around a fire or converse in a coffee shop, as in "Hà Nội at Midnight" and in "Reminiscences." Juxtaposed with this tranquility and geniality are the abandoned areas and defoliated forests occasioned by American bombardment and the American use of Agent Orange, as in "An