A Vietnamese novelist captures troubled history

The Mountains Sing , a first novel by Vietnamese poet and author Nguyen Phan Que Mai, is a saga about the Tran family, against the backdrop of 20th century Vietnamese history, is told from two perspectives. First is that of grandmother Dieu Lan, telling her family story to her granddaughter Hu’o’ng, nicknamed Guava.    Dieu Lan, …

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Fiction among the fragrances of spring

Want to get away from current news stories, weather warnings, and Donald Trump's hush money election fraud trial? Want to stretch out with a book amidst the fragrance of lilacs, the perfume of flowering crab trees and sweet rhododendrons, and the riotous colors of geraniums and bleeding hearts? Here are some novels to consider this …

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Remembering where we were

Fifty years ago today, the woman was not yet a journalist.  She was barely 24, a Wellesley College graduate, living in a thoroughly domestic life in a garden apartment in Norwood, getting used to days and weeks totally different from what she might have experienced were she born a generation later.  She was surrounded by other, …

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