Book launch «Xứ sở vô danh» and a meeting with Doan Bui

   A book about loss, finished more than ten years ago and only now published in Vietnamese, is the occasion for a conversation that rarely happens in public. French-Vietnamese journalist Doan Bui comes to Ho Chi Minh City to talk with readers about «Xứ sở vô danh», her most personal piece of writing, joined by a scholar of French literature and a local novelist.

   The book follows a mother who lost her daughter at fifteen days old, and borrows the land where lost children never grow up from Peter Pan to speak about that emptiness. It is part confession, part anti-guide to grief, a place where tragedy walks next to laughter. The Vietnamese edition was translated by Thuận, runs to 224 pages and is published by Kim Đồng.

   The essentials:
Doan Bui was born in 1976 and works as a reporter for the weekly Le Nouvel Obs
She won the Albert Londres Prize in 2013 for a series of reports on migrants
Her debut novel «La Tour» came out in 2022, and «Người cha im lặng» appeared in Vietnamese in 2018, also translated by Thuận
Guests in Ho Chi Minh City: Associate Professor Phạm Văn Quang and writer Mai Anh Đoàn
The tour covers four cities: Hanoi on 11 October, Huế on 14 October, Da Nang on 15 October and Ho Chi Minh City

   The meeting is for readers who follow contemporary French writing and for anyone who wants to hear an author explain how a private experience turns into a book. Writers get something out of it too, as this is a chance to question a reporter with years of social journalism behind her.

   The programme uses consecutive French to Vietnamese interpretation, so the discussion is translated in the room and you can put your questions to the author directly.

   Registration is required for a seat, and this is one of four meetings the author holds with Vietnamese readers on this trip.