All the Rivers Flow into the Sea by Khanh Ha: Review

Teddyrose@1

2 years ago

All the Rivers Flow into the Sea and Other Stories by Khanh Ha

Publisher: Eastover Press LLC (June 7, 2022)
Category: Short Stories, Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction, Vietnam
Tour dates: July 25-August 31, 2022
ISBN: 978-1958094020
Available in Print and ebook, 208 pages

Description All the Rivers Flow into the Sea by Khanh Ha

From Vietnam to America, this story collection, jewel-like, evocative, and layered, brings to readers a unique sense of love and passion alongside tragedy and darker themes of peril. The titular story features a love affair between an unlikely duo pushing against barely surmountable cultural barriers. In “The Yin-Yang Market,” magical realism and the beauty of innocence abounds in deep dark places, teeming with life and danger. “A Mute Girl’s Yarn” tells a magical coming-of-age story like sketches in a child’s fairy book.

Bringing together the damned, the unfit, the brave who succumb to the call of fate, All the Rivers Flow Into the Sea is a great journey where redemption and human goodness arise out of violence and beauty to become part of an essential mercy.

All the Rivers Flow into the Sea was selected as a winner of the 2021 EastOver Prize for Fiction and has received much advanced praise.

My Thoughts All the Rivers Flow into the Sea by Khanh Ha

Khanh Ha has released a new collection of short stories. When Ha puts out a new novel or short story collection, it goes to the top of my list. He has never disappointed and so is the case with this short story collection, ‘All Rivers Flow Into the Sea’!

Not all authors can write a good short story, it is a true art form an Ha has it. I don’t give out 5-star reviews like candy however, every novel and short story collection of his had earned 5 stars, including this collection.

The stories are all about the people of Vietnam or the American soldiers who fought there. They are all heart felt stories. These are not stories that one ploughs through fast, they are to savor and contemplate. I like to read one, put the book down and think. Many of these stories left me with my heart pounding with anxiety, like the story about ‘The Woman-Child’. Cam live in a poor fishing village with her father. Besides cooking for him, she has many other responsibilities like repairing his fishing nets every night. This is pain staking work but also becomes dangerous when a neighborhood drunk man appears and tries to rape her. We learn this is not the first time.

She has a new friend, a young Vietnamese-American man who is there working on his thesis about the environmental impact of shrimp farming. This is a big problem in the country, much like Salmon farming is in North America. He witnesses the attempted rape and asks Cam if she has told her father about it. Her father basically shrugs it off and tells her to fight him off. Eventually the young man has to go back to the United States and hates leaving her.

I was delighted to hear the name Rossi again, that popped up in one of the stories about a U.S. man, Mr. Rossi, working as a diplomat towards the beginning of the Vietnam war. He was taking Vietnamese language lessons so he could better do his job. Ha wrote an entire novel about Mrs. Rossi searching for the remains of her son, whom was an American solder fighting in the war.

I don’t want to giveaway to much from each story, you will have to read this collection for yourself. Be prepared for some sleepless nights contemplating some of these stories. Also have some tissues available. I am not trying to scare you off, ‘All Rivers Flow Into the Sea’ is a must read for literary fans!

Ha’s writing is mesmerizing and captivating. I completely forget my surroundings when I read his poetic prose. I am transported to the places and people of whom he writes. It is the closest thing to time travel one can experience. Highly recommended!

About Khanh Ha

Multi award winning author, Khanh Ha is the author of Flesh, The Demon Who Peddled Longing, and Mrs. Rossi’s Dream. He is a seven-time Pushcart nominee, finalist for the Mary McCarthy Prize, Many Voices Project, Prairie Schooner Book Prize, and The University of New Orleans Press Lab Prize. He is the recipient of the Sand Hills Prize for Best Fiction, the Robert Watson Literary Prize in Fiction, The Orison Anthology Award for Fiction, The James Knudsen Prize for Fiction, The C&R Press Fiction Prize, and The EastOver Fiction Prize.

Mrs. Rossi’s Dream was named Best New Book by Booklist and a 2019 Foreword Reviews INDIES Silver Winner and Bronze Winner. All the Rivers Flow into the Sea & Other Stories has already won the EastOver Fiction Prize.

Website: http://www.authorkhanhha.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KhanhHa69784776
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorkhanhha

Giveaway All the Rivers Flow into the Sea by Khanh Ha

This giveaway is for 3 print copies and is open to the U.S. only. This giveaway ends on Aug 27, 2022 midnight, pacific time. Entries accepted via Rafflecopter only.

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