"Drifting" Lives in Nguyen Ngoc Tu's Short Story Collection

In November, Tre Publishing House released the book Drifting by writer Nguyen Ngoc Tu.

The work is a collection of 13 short stories, telling about the lives of people drifting in life, including: Dreaming of people, Between here and there, The beginning of the wind, Faraway hunger, Swinging in a cocoon, Drifting, Cold fire in the sky, Between this material, Debt, Waiting, By the door, Chlorophyll rain, Towards nowhere.

According to the author, lives drift, but are stuck somewhere, at the same time. They untie but also tie. They seek freedom, letting go of places, of harsh realities, of joys and sorrows, but how can they escape the siege of the horizon.

With Troi, with his rare storytelling talent, Nguyen Ngoc Tu opened up an uncertain world with people trying to hold on to something, while also wanting to escape it, in their seemingly endless drifting journey.

Readers can easily find empathy with each character, as if they are a part of each of us. And that person is described as an aimless wandering object - always in a state of struggling to explain and clarify what they have lost.

Cover of the book "Drifting" by writer Nguyen Ngoc Tu (Photo: Tre Publishing House).

In the journey drifting along their own orbits, these objects brush past each other, unconsciously stirring up human warmth, evoking the feeling of beauty held in hand, always at risk of disintegration.

After all, are human connections strong enough to keep each soul from drifting forever?

" I'd rather drift alone. But what's left of a decaying island is not much. A few roofs loom above the water, a few jars, and strips of land wide enough for a person to sit on, drifting lazily in the distance. It's only after a while that a piece of land drifts close by, just as it shudders and splits in two.

In the maze of water, I don't know where I'm going. There's no shore to guide me. Everywhere I look, I see only water and foam, and floating matter.

Now everyone goes their own way", excerpt from the work.

Nguyen Ngoc Tu, 47 years old, lives in Ca Mau.

Representative works: The lamp does not go out, Endless field, Loving the person waiting for the mountain, Miscellaneous writings of Nguyen Ngoc Tu, New Year's Eve, Lonely wind and 9 other stories, River, Island, Measuring the heart, No one crosses the river, Cold neck, Splendid sky smoke, Empty luggage, Cold smoke on hands, Drifting.

The short story collection Endless Field (2005) received the Vietnam Writers Association Award in 2006 and the short story of the same name was adapted into a movie in 2010.

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