Wild Mustard, an anthology of prizewinning short fiction by contemporary Vietnamese writers, captures the kaleidoscopic experiences of modern Vietnam's youth, navigating between home and newly expanded horizons, as they seek new opportunities through migration, education, and integration not only into their nation but into the world.
Following the tradition of the “Under 40” collections popularized by magazines such as the New Yorker and Granta, but with greater stakes and greater differences between the previous generation of writers and this new one, Wild Mustard seeks to change how North American readers think of Vietnam. Escaping the common fixation on the Vietnam War and its aftermath, these stories reflect the movement and dynamism of the young Vietnamese who find themselves in a vibrant world.
“This beautiful collection of short stories introduces a new side of Vietnam that pulls it out of the historical prison of the Vietnam War, where it’s been trapped for the last forty years. While the stories are specific to Vietnam, they are written in such a way that Anglophone readers of this translation can relate to, which makes them so relevant and important.” —Firpo
“The first anthology to focus on Vietnamese writers born after the Vietnam War, Wild Mustard makes you realize that whatever you thought you knew about Vietnam and its literature is woefully out of date. This is an important collection, one that shows Vietnamese fiction to be not only vibrant and alive, but also a very different creature than what you thought it was.” —Brian Evenson, noted author
(Group read suggestion from Julie Jacobs, book club moderator.)