Publisher: Gival Press, (October 1, 2023)
Category: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
Tour dates: January 16-Feb 23, 2024
ISBN: 978-1940724454
Available in Print and ebook, 280 pages
Phượng. Her name is the magnificent flame tree’s flowers that grace the ancient capital of Huế. Her father, mentor of Canh the young eunuch, was a hundred-year-old grand eunuch of the Imperial Court, who had adopted and raised her since she was a baby. Their peaceful world suddenly changed when one day, sometime in the early years of the Vietnam war, Jonathan Edward came into their lives. On his quest to search for his just deceased lover’s mysterious birth, there he met Phượng, an exquisite beauty.
Through the eye of her father, history is retold. Just before the fall of the French Indochina during the last dynasty of Vietnam, a young eunuch hopelessly fell in love with a high-ranking concubine. Once the eunuch had secured the concubine’s trust, it became a fatal attraction. The eunuch died. The concubine, still a virgin, lost her mind. Her father said she was possessed by the young eunuch’s spirit who had been madly in love with her.
Her:
The Flame Tree- Book Review
Not very often does one
get to read a masterfully woven piece melding some good old tradition, family
matters, sacrifice, loyalty, and some redeeming love. However, Khanh Ha does
exactly that in this brilliant masterpiece ‘Her: The Flame Tree.’
Reporter and graduate
student Minh Tanh has a mission to find an adopted daughter of an elderly
imperial eunuch who had served the emperor in the late 19th century
and early 20th century. Upon meeting Phoung Bo who is now aged and
living a simple rural life Tanh is now curious to know her story. Born when
Vietnam is under the French Phuong Bo is half French and half Vietnamese and lacks
any knowledge of her family’s history. Later she is adopted by Bo who serves as
the grand eunuch for the powerful emperor and who has a good liking for one of
the aging Emperor’s concubines something which leads him to some forbidden
romance. More mystery arises when a young Phuong is met by Jonathan Edwards an
American who is in search of her dead lover’s family who also happens to be of Vietnamese
and French origin and who possesses a phoenix necklace identical to the one
Phuong has. How will events unfold in this interwoven matrix?
Ha does a marvelous job
in this stunningly inventive and deeply moving fiction with complete characters
while bringing that creative atmosphere blending different timelines thus
taking the reader to various events in this lush and beautiful country’s
history while appreciating the country’s political and social structure changes
over the centuries. This piece deserving my five-stars!!
Enjoy this excerpt:
EXCERPT
(HER: The Flame Tree by
Khanh Ha)
The summer heat often drove her and her father
outside onto the steps of their house, where they’d sit sharing a bowl of rice.
One such evening, when she was four, the air filled with the sawing of many
locust wings. The sky was dark and bloated as the insects swarmed through the
village. People ran out of their houses, some still holding rice bowls, some
with toothpicks stuck in their teeth, some carrying todders astride their hips,
all watching the sky. Phượng hid in the house, frightened by the sounds of
their wings.
Night fell and the locusts still
buzzed. They crashed against the window shutters like pebbles thrown by a boy,
one after another. She couldn’t sleep. Her father soothed her as the locusts
detonated against the house.
That night she dreamed of a
little girl standing by their pond. Drenched, she stood, looking at Phượng. The
girl’s eyes were beautiful in their tranquility. Long, curly lashes shading
them. When Phượng woke, it was dawn.The air was quiet. She thought of the
locusts, relieved they were finally gone, then thought of her dream. It shook
her―it was so real.
She opened the door and went to
the lotus pond with the girl’s face still fresh in her mind. She stood in the
exact spot where the girl had been, where old green moss coated the rim of the
pond. In her pajamas, with dreams still clouding her eyes, she waited for
something nameless. When she turned to look down into the pond, her foot slid
on the moss and she splashed into the water and sank.
All she saw then was her father,
bright amid a long dark tunnel of water that made no sound. Breathless, she
sensed that she had lost him forever. Just as everything collapsed in a black
shroud, she felt a hand grab her.
After her father dried her, he
sat her down and looked into her eyes, frowning.
“Phượng,” he said soothingly,
“what were you doing by the pond at this hour?”
“I wanted to see the girl.”
“Little one, I didn’t see anyone
out there.”
“I was scared last night. The
girl came to be with me.” Phượng glanced toward the pond. “She left to go to
the water.”
Her father nodded. “You saw her
by the pond?”
“Yes.”
“What did the little girl look
like?”
Phượng pointed at her chest.
“Like me. But it’s not me. She’s someone else.”
He held her hands in his. “Dear,
you were dreaming.”
“I wasn’t dreaming, father. I
saw her.”
He leaned down and touched his
forehead to hers. “Don’t ever go to the pond, unless I’m there with you.”
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Giveaway- HER: The Flame Tree by Khanh Ha
This giveaway is for 2 print or ebook copies print is open to the U.S. only. Ebook is open worldwide. This giveaway ends on Feb 23, 2024 midnight, pacific time. Entries accepted via Rafflecopter only.
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