Hanoi, long a city of storytellers, has been devastated and reborn time and time again. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai guides readers through the literature that has played a part in that renewal.
“The Visionaries,” by Wolfram Eilenberger, examines the divergent theories of self and other developed in a time of crisis by Hannah Arendt, Simone de Beauvoir, Ayn Rand and Simone Weil.
Brando Skyhorse’s novel is the subtly dystopian story of a Mexican American woman who realizes that America has become less welcoming to people like her.
In Kyle Dillon Hertz’s novel, “The Lookback Window,” a victim of child sexual abuse questions what healing looks like when a law gives him the chance to press charges against his assailants.
In his memoir, “Waiting to Be Arrested at Night,” the poet Tahir Hamut Izgil evokes the fear and danger of daily life for a Chinese ethnic minority that has been the target of a brutal crackdown.
In “Flirting With Danger,” Janet Wallach tells the story of Marguerite Harrison, who traded a life of privilege to become America’s first international female spy.
Four of the 13 books that will compete for the prestigious literary award are debuts, in a longlist that the judges said was “defined by its freshness.”