Making a Whore

From the highly controversial writer, reporter, and satirist Vũ Trọng Phụng, Making a Whore is an exposé of the so-called progressive 'Westernised' ideals of sexuality in 1930s colonial Vietnam.

The novel follows the life of Huyền, a young woman born into Hà Nội’s upper-class, whose innocent interest in her mother’s pregnancy is casually dismissed: ‘You’ll find out when you get married’. Lacking sexual education from her family, Huyền turns to her peers for answers, opening up a world of childish whispers about physical pleasure.

As polite society demands Huyền to remain virtuous, she enters into adulthood with both the will to know and the will to suppress a young woman’s burning physical desires. The torments of her sexual frustration spiral Huyền into a life of debauchery; one she might not ever want to turn back from.

‘A classic work of Vietnamese literature. Heartshattering, thought-provoking and unforgettable.’  —Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, author of Dust Child

‘Making a Whore is an immediate and sharply observed modernist text. While Vũ Trọng Phụng’s prolific yet short-lived output of work was once considered obscene and outrageous, Making a Whore is an absolutely vital text that looks to the future by questioning the teachings of governance; the failings of the health, marriage and education systems, and how society shames young women and curious minds. Not only that, it is also a heartfelt treatise on a person’s capacity for love and desire, and the systems in place that restrict them.’ —Joshua Jones, author of Local Fires