The story begins with a young Vietnamese man who has lived in America for many years, then one day suddenly learns that his father lives alone in Hue and is in a deep coma. During that time, his father wakes up only once, looks at and holds his son's hand, their first and last connection.

Ten days of taking care of his father in the deserted mansion of his family, "chatting" with his father - a doctor of ethnology, through the scattered notes found on his father's laptop, the son searches for his roots... The character's journey of healing the brokenness to connect the endless past of the nation is the theme of the novel In the Endless.

The novel caused a stir in the domestic and international literary world.

Through the intertextual technique, many pieces are both independent and connected to the whole: the case of the Hue court's suicide soldiers infiltrating the French Embassy to destroy the unfavorable treaty before it was brought back to Paris opens up a tragic view of the Vietnam-France war; the image of a Northern actress holding a stone zither following a group of migrants to the South to find her father is enough to illuminate the entire division of the country after the Geneva Agreement; a television report by a young journalist immediately brings readers to the hot spot of the East Sea, the Duy Tan uprising...

History, war, nature, love, death… are the “eternal themes” of world literature. The story Into the Endless spans the 20th century to the second decade of the 21st century. During those 120 years, Vietnam has undergone many changes and upheavals.

Amidst the chaos of war, intrigue, danger and death, there still appears a space of Hue immersed in grass, trees, flowers, rivers, wharves and ferries. Nature is like a special character that can soothe the wounds of life and the wounds of the heart. Nature is also a place that holds back those who have left home.

With just over 200 pages, the novel Into the Endless contains many lives, many historical events, and all focus on one big theme: Connecting with the past as an act to perfect yourself in the present.

The ASEAN Literature Awards 2021 is a literary event organized by the Thai Royal Family, which has been postponed due to the Covid 19 pandemic. In 2023, the second Princess of the King of Thailand, Sirivannavari Nariratana Rajakanya, on behalf of the Royal Family, presided over the award ceremony and directly presented awards to writers from 10 countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam).

Writer Vinh Quyen

In an interview at the 2021 ASEAN Literature Awards Ceremony, writer Vinh Quyen said that literature is a great means of cultural exchange. This is to help change a reality that has existed for centuries: Southeast Asians understand the history, culture and current events of Western countries better than their neighbors. Except for the Philippines and Singapore, which have a tradition of writing and publishing in English, in the remaining countries, the number of translated works is very modest.

Translators and publishers in Southeast Asia believe that the literature of countries in the region is not worthy of being translated and introduced, and in addition, the market share of this region is still very small in the book market. That makes it difficult for many writers, literary researchers and readers in Southeast Asia to learn about each other's literature.

“I wish that the works awarded from 1979 to present will be organized into a Southeast Asian Literature Bookcase, translated into English, published and introduced in the region as well as the world ,” writer Vinh Quyen expressed.

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