"Mountains on flat land"

Young author Vo Dinh Duy is a member of the Gia Lai Literature and Arts Association since 2023, specializing in poetry. Duy's poetry is also very unique, full of evocative imagery, and has been published in newspapers and magazines such as: Military Literature and Arts Magazine, Gia Lai Literature and Arts Magazine, Ao Trang Newspaper, Gia Lai Newspaper... since 2012, but then Duy stopped writing.

Then, in 2024, while participating in a novel and short story writing camp organized by the People's Police Publishing House in April 2024, Duy was inspired to rewrite. And when he rewrote, it wasn't poetry or short stories, but his first book was a novel full of mythical colors, the hidden meanings of time, the messages of the era, and the anxieties of young people about a land rich in culture that is gradually being swept away, changed, and corrupted by modern life, and the desire to rediscover traces of the past—all meticulously depicted by Duy in "Mountains on Flat Land" (Literature Publishing House, June 2025).

The story, imbued with both fairytale and mythical elements, is rich in the cultural colors of the town of Maccot, a remarkably successful narrative. The sensitive threads of the past nurtured the friends of the B'la generation—myself, H'hoai, Pơ Y, Li Ết—and the mystical tales of red moss, customs, and people of Maccot are seamlessly and harmoniously constructed by author Võ Đình Duy. Readers can easily visualize this new yet familiar land; from a cultural perspective, they can easily imagine the scenery and people, not feeling detached from life. This town seems like a town we've visited and known before the whirlwind of commerce arrived, changing everything from the native trees and houses to the people themselves.

The mysteries hidden within the stories are not without reason; the interwoven and interconnected relationships of trees, people, mountains, and lakes are skillfully conveyed by the author, delivering life messages without any forced effort. Perhaps, due to his background as an architect and his return to painting, exploring the art of lacquer painting, the author's spatial design in the novel easily resonates with the reader's senses.

By cramming all the information into the first chapter, it becomes a labyrinth full of twists and turns, forcing the reader to strain all their senses to process it. The details are disjointed but focus on a specific point: the mysterious red moss that causes the "red death" of the town's youths, leaving everyone bewildered and terrified.

The fragmented story, recounted by those who witnessed B'la's death, doesn't form a coherent whole but only accentuates the town's mystical aura, like an illusion being stripped bare by tourism exploitation. Is this a warning from nature, or a mystery awaiting resolution?

After the deliberately intense first chapter, the events in the following chapters gradually unfold gently, allowing the reader to easily visualize the mysterious and captivating nature of Maccot town. The stories unfold slowly, evoking images that are both familiar and dreamlike—a peaceful, fairytale land with ancient Maccot trees bearing delicious fruit used to make wine and cakes, and offering significant tourism potential. The blue-tailed birds of the Mpú Toh-Kong festival, the coming-of-age ceremony for children, the vast mountains, the large lake, and the fields of childhood connect these children.

And so, from the coming-of-age festival, the narrator, unable to obtain the red stone, flees to the city. The author's description takes an abrupt turn, portraying the city as a stark, modern, and crowded place that everyone knows, as if stripping away the narrator's sense of alienation to its peak. Yet, the character from the fairytale land keeps pace with modernity, painting a bleak future for himself in this new land, only to return when the death of B'la, a childhood friend, strikes, and the friends discover the unstable rhythm spreading throughout their childhood town.

Dr. Ha Thanh Van commented that Vo Dinh Duy's novel "Mountains on Flat Land" is a debut literary work published in 2025, marking a surprising transition from a young architect living in Gia Lai to a journey of creating a literary world. The novel "Mountains on Flat Land" leads readers into the pristine, silent land of Maccot, where reality and fantasy, science and the supernatural, individual and community, legend and truth coexist in overlapping layers of space and feeling, through a mystical literary quality, a fragmented narrative structure, and a unique ability to design space—a strong architectural imprint within a fictional text.

As an architect, Vo Dinh Duy has naturally demonstrated his ability to "design fictional spaces" in his novels. The space in "Mountains on Flat Land" is not a backdrop but the character itself—a character who breathes, whispers, and reacts to pain and loss. In a literary world increasingly technologized and flattened on a global scale, "Mountains on Flat Land" It carries echoes from the forest, from the rocks, from the streams, from places "beyond reality." It is a heartfelt call emanating from the pages of the novel: listen to space, for who knows, there may be souls rising there.

Following the friends who seek answers about B'la's death, readers will connect the events to find their way to the heart of the large lake, where a tourism project is always enclosed by corrugated iron fences, and where a massive explosion caused turmoil in the peaceful land. Perhaps Duy's artistic prowess and his unpretentious yet impressive descriptions of the scenery allow readers to easily immerse themselves in the vast mountainous landscape without any doubt or confusion. And although this is his first attempt at writing a novel, Duy's way of structuring and resolving the story is still captivating in his own unique way.

Source: https://baogialai.com.vn/nui-tren-dat-bang-post560335.html