Book Recommendations: Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s 'The Mountains Sing': A Novel that Speaks to the Soul

The Photograph of The Book - ‘The Mountains Sing’ by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai Taken From Amazon Kindle

Recently, I bought the book ‘The Mountains Sing’ by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai on Amazon Kindle and I am sharing here a photograph of the same. I am deeply thankful to Amazon Kindle for making this knowledge treasure available to me—for without it, I would not have had the chance to read and share this recommendation. Truly, this is one of the most touching novels I have ever encountered.

I have read many books on war, but this one stands apart. It does not merely recount battles and strategies, but it awakens in us the higher truths of life: humanity, responsibility towards family, the destruction of war and the painful irony that men and women though educated in morality, can still lose their conscience and commit harm against those who never wronged them.

This book has taught me that in war, no one knows what tomorrow will bring. Yet if one’s good deeds are remembered, then that soul never dies. Though the body is consumed by the earth, the fragrance of virtue lingers. War shows us another bitter truth: even those who were once graceful and noble can become monsters—not from necessity but because evil seizes their hearts. And has this not been the story of mankind, through hundreds of wars since time began?

But the question arises: why this constant thirst for dominion? Why must men conquer? What do we gain in the end, when all must return to the earth? Is it supremacy, territory or power? These are illusions. The eternal law is simple: from the earth we are born and into the earth we shall return.

Those who perish in wars are not faceless masses. They are someone’s son, someone’s daughter, someone’s mother, someone’s father. We are all bound together in a universal brotherhood and sisterhood and yet we divide ourselves by mistrust, imagining that others mean us harm. It is but a play of the mind. As per my personal life teaches me that what you do comes back to you in manifold ways. Do good and good shall return. Cause harm and it shall revisit you with greater force.

By God’s grace, I have never seen war myself, nor do I wish to. Yet I feel the anguish of the innocent forced to leave this world without reason. And I ask: is it so difficult to live in peace with one another? Must nations expand by seizing another’s land? Must supremacy be proven by trampling those who live differently?

Once, I believed man could command his own destiny. But this book and my own personal struggles, have taught me otherwise. In times of crisis, ordinary citizens are like leaves in a storm falling by the thousands, scattered by forces they cannot control.

The Photograph of The Book - ‘The Mountains Sing’ by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai in my Amazon Kindle

‘The Mountains Sing’ is one of the noblest books I have read. It is inspired by the experiences of Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s family and those around her, but it carries within it the voices of countless Vietnamese who survived war with courage and compassion. I was especially moved by the author’s gratitude to her English teacher, Trương Văn Anh. How wondrous it is that a lesson in language in the eighth grade should one day become the very instrument by which her nation’s stories are carried across the world.

The book speaks not only of the Vietnam War with the United States, but of the Great Hunger, the Land Reform Movement and the civil war between North and South. It reveals how great powers clashed upon Vietnamese soil, yet it is the ordinary people who bore the unbearable. At its heart is the story of Grandma Diệu Lan, her struggle through hunger, exile and war, her care for her children and her ultimate realization that life is fragile and fleeting. What matters is not the number of years we live, but the light we bring to those around us and the compassion we share. The story has characters Mr. Tran plus Mrs Tran, Mrs Tu, Grandma Dieu Lan, Cong, Minh, Ngoc, Dat, Thun, Hanh, Sang, Then, Nhan, Huong, Thong, Thanh, Chau etc.

‘The Mountains Sing’ is more than a novel—it is a cry of the human soul amidst the storms of history. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai does not merely recount the Vietnam War; she allows us to walk beside those who suffered it. Through the voice of Grandma Diệu Lan and her family, we feel hunger, fear that shatters childhood and loss that echoes for generations. What makes the book unforgettable is its insistence that behind every statistic of war lies a human face, a trembling voice, a broken dream. Quế Mai reminds us that war does not choose its victims—they are mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, all bound to us by the same thread of humanity. In her delicate yet unflinching storytelling, we discover the painful irony that nations fight for power and territory, while ordinary people fight simply to live, to love and to remember. The novel asks us to confront a question we would rather avoid: if compassion were our guiding principle, would there ever be another war?

It compels us to ask: Why do we fight? Why do we hate? Why must brother rise against brother? The answer lies not in conquest or dominion, but in compassion, in unity, in the realization that one soul dwells in all. That awareness is the only true victory.

Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, born in 1973, grew up amidst the devastation of war. She has written many books in her own language, but in this book, she has given not only a novel but a testimony of suffering and survival. If I were to measure the book on content, it in the form of rating, I would give it nine out of ten. But beyond numbers, this is a book that shakes the conscience and awakens the heart. 

That's all for now. I hope these reflections have offered some food for thought. Please feel free to share your perspectives.

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Thanks and regards,

Mainak Majumdar, Book Critic

Email: mainakmajumdar.dasgupta@rediffmail.com & majumdar@majumdarbookreviews.asia