Water: a Chronicle

by Nguyễn Ngọc Tư, Nguyễn An Lý (Translator)

After an eight-year long hiatus, Nguyễn Ngọc Tư comes back with her second novel. Mesmerising, poignant, lyrical, existential, yet claustrophobic, Water: A Chronicle encapsulates the beauty of what contemporary Vietnamese writing has to offer.

At the heart of this watery 'chronicle' is a dual mystery: a holy man on an island empire, once a con artist, and a desperate mother named Phúc (Fortune) seeking his heart to cure her child. The mosaic novel of nine stories circles this enigma like the river’s currents, carrying with it fragments of myth and life from timeless Mekong. A trans woman who wants to be “full”, a shadow bride who wants to be fleshed, a mad woman with a colicky infant, a words-eating woman shielding her child from a fly apocalypse.... The ghosts and ghouls that reflect upon the water surface may well be the everyday reality of
river life, or simply the universal haunting of womanhood.

Genres: Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

Published October 5, 2024

About the author

Nguyễn Ngọc Tư (sinh năm 1976 tại xã Tân Duyệt, huyện Đầm Dơi, tỉnh Cà Mau) là một nữ nhà văn trẻ của Hội nhà văn Việt Nam, được biết đến nhiều nhất bởi tập truyện gây tranh cãi mang tên Cánh đồng bất tận. Tập truyện, dù vậy, đã nhận được giải thưởng của Hội nhà văn Việt Nam năm 2006 và truyện ngắn Cánh đồng bất tận được chuyển thể thành phim điện ảnh cùng tên đạo diễn bởi Nguyễn Phan Quang Bình năm 2010. Hiện cô đang sinh sống và công tác ở Đầm Dơi, Cà Mau.

Tác phẩm
Ngọn đèn không tắt (2000)
Ông ngoại (2001)
Biển người mênh mông (2003)
Giao thừa (tập truyện ngắn, 2003, tái bản 2012)
Nước chảy mây trôi (tập truyện ngắn và ký, 2004)
Cái nhìn khắc khoải
Đau gì như thể (truyện ngắn-giải ba cuộc thi truyện ngắn của báo văn nghệ năm 2004-2005)
Sống chậm thời @ (tản văn, 2006) - đồng tác giả với Lê Thiếu Nhơn
Sầu trên đỉnh Puvan (2007)
Truyện ngắn Nguyễn Ngọc Tư (tập truyện ngắn, 2005)
Cánh đồng bất tận (tập truyện ngắn, 2005)
Tạp văn Nguyễn Ngọc Tư (tạp bút, 2005)
Ngày mai của những ngày mai (tạp bút, 2007)
Gió lẻ và 9 câu chuyện khác (tập truyện ngắn, 2008)
Biển của mỗi người (tạp bút, 2008)
Yêu người ngóng núi (tản văn, 2009)
Khói trời lộng lẫy (tập truyện ngắn, 2010)
Gáy người thì lạnh (tản văn, 2012)
Bánh trái mùa xưa (2012)
Sông (tiểu thuyết, 2012)
Chấm (thơ, 2013)
Đảo (tập truyện ngắn, 2014)
Trầm tích (tập truyện ngắn, 2014), ra chung với Huệ Minh, Lê Thuý Bảo Nhi, Thi Nguyễn.
Đong tấm lòng (gồm hơn 30 tản văn), Nhà xuất bản Trẻ, 2015
Không ai qua sông (tập truyện ngắn, 2016)
Cố định một đám mây (tập truyện ngắn, 2018)

Reviews

[Steph | bookedinsaigon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Man, contemporary Vietnamese writers be out there wildin’, lol. In WATER, Nguyễn Ngọc Tư’s first novel to be translated into English by the acclaimed Nguyễn An Lý, difficult, at times inaccessible, prose gives life to breathtaking imagery that gives me hope for what the Vietnamese literary world can show the world.

Let’s get this straight: WATER is not an easy read. There’s no real plot, the chapters are only loosely connected, and you’d be hard pressed to figure out what’s going on. Those of you who dislike “vibes only” books will have your patience tried with this one. The question that remains is: is it worth it?

Well, yes and no. I will argue that Nguyễn An Lý is the best Vietnamese-to-English translator working today, and brings Nguyễn Ngọc Tư’s challenging prose to vivid, almost uncomfortable, life. There are weird, yet memorable, snapshots in the writing that haunt me, such as the description of a bat slicing through the twilight… or of a flooded river covering almost all landmarks as far as the eye can see… or of an abandoned house taken over by cockroaches in every stage of their life cycle. I don’t really know what they’re doing in the story, but I also don’t want to look away. An Lý has also done a magnificent job of making the English translation move like water: often circular, sometimes frantic, never entirely at peace with itself.

But it is also entirely a “no plot just vibes” book. Each chapter is narrated from the POV of a new character, so we don’t have much time to get to know each character. The central plot, which seems to be about a mother attempting to hunt down a holy man in order to steal his heart to cure her child, is circled around like sudsy water slowly circling a semi-blocked drain, yet never fully reaches a conclusion.

If you want to see what some of the best contemporary Vietnamese writers are creating nowadays, there’s no better way to do so than by experiencing Nguyễn An Lý’s translations. Just be prepared to be patient.

[endrju · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with every short story collection, even with interconnected stories as is the case here, it is uneven. Some stories/chapters work better than others, some work incredibly well - the imagery sometimes stuns. But some parts are rather obscure, testing the patience of the admittedly East European and therefore very distantly removed reader. As a whole, Nguyễn Ngọc Tư's work still lingers in my mind two days after I'm done with the book, making me wonder how it all comes together and, more importantly, why.

[Pat | _chaoticbooknook · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up!

Thank you to Major Books for this e-ARC! Released 10/30 - out now!

This one is a bit hard to rate, because I truly enjoyed the prose (MANY props to the translator, Nguyễn An Lý!), but the plot of certain stories admittedly went a bit over my head. I think I need to re-read this to fully appreciate certain stories.

WATER is a series of short but interrelated stories centered around an island, a mother’s desperate search for a cure for her child, and the Vietnamese experience. The stories seem related yet aren’t, more of a mosaic of life than a web.

The title of the book is important, because it sets the stage for the way this book comes together, both literally and metaphorically. All these stories coalesce around the theme of traveling to or being close to water. I loved how these seemingly disparate stories felt like different tributaries that swirl and eventually are supposed to merge at one delta. Not to mention, the lyrical prose worked well to set the tone overall. I found the translations so gorgeous - the astuteness of insights shared throughout the stories caught me off guard.

I want to shout out the last two chapters of the book. They were my favorite.

While I quite enjoyed the technical aspects of the stories, I admit that certain plots went over my head. It took a bit of effort to become oriented to the world, the structure, and the overall theme and story. I felt a bit confused for a bit, and I didn’t truly sink into it all until a little over halfway into the book.

Overall, I enjoyed the writing/translation, the way the stories came together, and getting a glimpse into Vietnamese culture. I’ll have to revisit it sometime later - perhaps the earlier stories will make a bit more sense to me then now that I have full context of the book.

[Victor Phun · Rating 4 out of 5]

very confusing at times but strangely moving. started reading it more as a short story collection instead of a novel and had more fun with it that way

[Milo Le · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very poignant striking prose but the mix of folklore and contemporary stories was either not translated well or just the author being very vague and chaotic. Short stories are hard to pull off well as they have to evoke a certain feeling in a few short pages. And I have to say, most stories left me confused and frustrated. I only manage to get through this book because of its short length.

[Vera Kirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

what?!

[Esme Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Astonishingly beautiful and imaginative.

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found it difficult to follow all the different characters and plotlines, but it is very beautifully written. I will probably read it a second time.