HER: The Flame Tree by Khanh Ha
Publisher: Gival Press, (October 1, 2023)
Category: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
Tour dates: January 16-Feb 23, 2024
ISBN: 978-1940724454
Available in Print and ebook, 280 pages
Description HER: The Flame Tree by Khanh Ha
If the fate of unrequited love survives fifty-one years, nine months, and four days in Gabriel García Márquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera, it leads the way for HER: The Flame Tree, a spare, remorseless love triptych that sweeps through the rich panorama of two generations of colonial and post-colonial Vietnam. The hopeless love of a young eunuch for a high-ranking concubine is one of this novel’s three stories that illuminate the oriental mystery of Vietnam, as epic as it is persevering,
Despite a rich trove of documentary films, Western readers know little of the spiritual face of Vietnam. Framed between 1915 and 1993, HER: The Flame Tree begins in Huế, the former imperial capital Vietnam. It is in the Purple Forbidden City, that Canh, the young eunuch, fulfills his vow to be near the girl of his dreams, a villager-turned imperial concubine.
The novel begins with an expatriate Vietnamese man living in the United States who journeys back to Vietnam to search for the adopted daughter of a centenarian eunuch of the Imperial Court of Huế to find out who she really is. His world takes on a new meaning after he becames a part of her life.
Phượng. Her name is the magnificent flame tree’s flowers that grace the ancient capital of Huế. Her father, mentor of Canh the young eunuch, was a hundred-year-old grand eunuch of the Imperial Court, who had adopted and raised her since she was a baby. Their peaceful world suddenly changed when one day, sometime in the early years of the Vietnam war, Jonathan Edward came into their lives. On his quest to search for his just deceased lover’s mysterious birth, there he met Phượng, an exquisite beauty.
Through the eye of her father, history is retold. Just before the fall of the French Indochina during the last dynasty of Vietnam, a young eunuch hopelessly fell in love with a high-ranking concubine. Once the eunuch had secured the concubine’s trust, it became a fatal attraction. The eunuch died. The concubine, still a virgin, lost her mind. Her father said she was possessed by the young eunuch’s spirit who had been madly in love with her.
HER: The Flame Tree does not have the flavor of historical fiction, plot-heavy and sexually graphic. Rather, it is atmospheric and impressionistic, in the style of Snow Falling on Cedars. The magnificent poinciana flowers, which grace the ancient capital of Huế, symbolize farewell in Vietnamese adolescent romance. Its symbolic image befits Phượng for her magnanimous nature and grace, and the scarlet blossoming flowers when Jonathan Edward bids Phượng farewell is beauty without sadness—Wait and Hope.
Review HER: The Flame Tree by Khanh Ha
‘HER: The Flame Tree’ centers around the life of Phuong. She was adopted by a eunuch of the Imperial of Huế, in Vietnam. Her name represents the flame tree’s flowers the are all around Huế.
The eunuch had invested in a noodle shop for Phuong to run as a teenager. He tried to dissuade her, pointing that he could care for her until she marries but she had an independent spirit. It was while she was working in her noodle shop that she met Jonathan Edward. He was looking for the daughter of his deceased lover.
Thus begins the story of the eunuch of the last dynasty of Vietnam and his adopted daughter. It covers his young love of high-ranking concubine and how he eventually adopted his daughter, around the fall of the dynasty.
Decades later, Minh, an expat of Vietnam travels back to his home country to speak with Phuong, now an old woman. About her life and that of her father’s.
HER, brings us on a at times, beautiful but at times painful journey as we follow Phuong’s and her father’s journey through time in Vietnam. Ha’s poetic prose captures the times and place with the force of the powerful flame tree. He captures the beauty and brutality of life. It is so atmospheric; it just takes your breath away! I have found all of his books to be both beautiful and brutal but this may just be his best one to date! I highly recommend that you read ‘‘HER: The Flame Tree’ and if you haven’t already done so, all of his books. He just captures the human condition, unconditionally, warts and all in a beautiful, almost spiritual way. 5-stars
About Khanh Ha
Award winning author Khanh Ha is a nine-time Pushcart nominee, finalist for The Ohio State University Fiction Collection Prize, Mary McCarthy Prize, Many Voices Project, Prairie Schooner Book Prize, The University of New Orleans Press Lab Prize, Prize Americana, and The Santa Fe Writers Project. 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, The EastOver Fiction Prize, The Blackwater Press Fiction Prize, The Gival Press Novel Award, and The Red Hen Press Fiction Award.
Website: http://www.authorkhanhha.com
Blog: http://authorkhanhha.blogspot.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KhanhHa69784776
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorkhanhha
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/khanhha
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Giveaway- HER: The Flame Tree by Khanh Ha
This giveaway is for 2 print or ebook copies print is open to the U.S. only. Ebook is open worldwide. This giveaway ends on Feb 23, 2024 midnight, pacific time. Entries accepted via Rafflecopter only.
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