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Heavily criticised upon publication and subsequently censored by the government, Making a Whore serves as a poignant defence for Huyền, its protagonist, deemed tainted by debauchery. With his uniquely satirical and irreverent tone, Vũ Trọng Phụng sharply exposes societal norms.
This long-awaited translation introduces English-speaking readers to a bold and influential voice, offering a unique window into a tumultuous period of history.
by Vũ Trọng Phụng
Translated by Đinh Ngọc Mai
Edited by Dương Mạnh Hùng, Alina Martin and Samuel Tan
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 kept at arm’s length: ‘You’ll find out when you get married’, so they say. 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.
⚠️ Please note our books are currently in Pre-Order status. Delivery timelines may vary due to editing and printing schedules. Thank you!
Nguyễn Bình, through Major Books, unveils a new translation in verse of The Tale of Kiều, a classic that has enchanted readers across generations, and offers a window into the cultural values and literary traditions of Vietnam.
by Nguyễn Du
Translated by Nguyễn Bình
Truyện Kiều by Nguyễn Du is a timeless masterpiece of Vietnamese literature, revered as one of the greatest poetic epics in the country’s history. Set against the backdrop of 16th-century China, the narrative follows the tragic journey of Thúy Kiều, a talented and virtuous young woman, as she endures a series of trials and tribulations. Nguyễn Du’s poetic prowess shines through in elegant verses and explores profound themes such as love, fate, honour, and the pursuit of happiness. Through Kiều’s poignant story, the epic delves into the complexities of human nature and the moral dilemmas faced by individuals in a society shaped by tradition and societal expectations.
⚠️ Please note our books are currently in Pre-Order status. Delivery timelines may vary due to editing and printing schedules. Thank you!
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.
by Nguyễn Ngọc Tư
Translated by Nguyễn An Lý
Edited by Deborah Smith
Winner of the PEN Translates Award 2024
At the heart of this watery ‘chronicle’ is a dual mystery: a holy man on an island empire, and a desperate mother 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 the great river.
A trans woman who wants to be ‘whole’, 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.
Major Books is an independent publishing company dedicated to bringing Vietnamese literature to the English-speaking world.
Our name, Major Books — devised by our brilliant friend Alina Martin — speaks as a clear, bold, and audacious resistance against the ‘minor’ status attributed to certain languages and their literature in the global publishing scene.
Our hope is to contribute, no matter how little, to growing awareness that there are no ‘lesser’ voices in world literature.
With the acute awareness of translation as an art form bearing immense potentials and challenges, our primary goal is to offer translations that are not only faithful but also true to the essence of the source book. Our translators, editors and illustrators, being mostly native speakers themselves, are committed to preserve the integrity and convey the originality of the author’s work.
We take immense pride in providing our authors, translators, and all stakeholders with fair and equitable compensation for their invaluable contributions, with the hope of fostering a thriving Vietnamese literature and creative ecosystems.
Between literary treasures that have been overlooked or worse, poorly translated, and brilliant pieces yet to be written, we will bring a curated selection of works from a variety of authors, periods, and genres. Ranging from critically acclaimed post-war fiction, national epic poetry, to contemporary LGBTQIA+ writings, we hope to present a well-rounded portrait of Vietnam and our diverse voices.
Quyen Nguyen is the co-founder and Chief Editor of Zzz Review, an independent non-profit online literary review based in Vietnam, with solid reputation as a trustworthy platform for up-to-date, informed and thoughtful perspectives about national and world literature for the globally-minded Vietnamese reader. Nguyen holds a Phd in English literature from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore with a dissertation on James Joyce. Her research interests include Modernism, Translation Studies, and Contemporary Vietnamese Literature. Her research works have been published by Palgrave Macmillan, and her criticism appears on Literature Korean Now, COLORSxSTUDIOS. She writes for various Vietnamese journals and magazines.
Nguyen is also an English-Vietnamese translator with more than 16 years of experience; her published translations include “What we talk about when we talk about love” by Raymond Carver (co-translated), “Atonement” by Ian McEwan, “Middlesex” by Jeffrey Eugenides.
Her edited anthology of Contemporary Vietnamese Literature in English translation is forthcoming.
Besides experiences in publishing and research, she has also been professionally involved with international cultural institutions and private firms in Germany, the UK, Australia, and Vietnam.
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