Publisher announces release of a new romantic saga
by Vietnamese-American "trailblazer"
by Vietnamese-American "trailblazer"
Fairfax, Va. – An exciting new literary voice from the generation of Vietnamese immigrants who came to the US after the fall of Saigon is being brought to readers this month with the publication of the romantic title Daughters of the River Huong – a Vietnamese royal concubine and her descendants, an historical novel by Uyen Nicole Duong (ISBN 1-928928-16-1 RavensYard Publishing, Ltd., Fairfax, Va. August 2005; Trade paperback, 271 pages; SRP $17.95).
Duong came to the US in 1975 at age 16 with her parents, who fled Vietnam days before the Communist victory. Her father was a linguistic professor, and her mother a teacher of Vietnamese literature. After a period of hardship in relocation camps, Duong and her family found a home in America and opportunities. After receiving her undergraduate degree from Southern Illinois, Duong obtained law degrees from the University of Houston and Harvard. She has worked as a municipal judge, a corporate lawyer and currently is a law professor.
Daughters of the River Huong, an historical romance, is Duong’s first published novel. Duong has been recognized in community publications for her trailblazing in the Vietnamese - American community. Duong was trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and Pasadena, and was a writer for Houston public schools. She was later appointed district director of risk management, the first Asian woman appointed by Houston Independent Public School District to an executive position. She also served in Houston as Associate Municipal Judge and Magistrate for the State of Texas and in 1992 was honored by the ABA for being the first Vietnamese-American judge in the U.S. She has worked in private practice in the international petroleum industry and as a trial attorney for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Duong is currently a professor of law at the University of Denver, one of three from the Vietnamese-American community with that position at any of the top 100 law schools.
Daughters of the River Huong – a Vietnamese royal concubine and her descendants is an ambitious multi-generation saga told from the point of view of several women. The publisher said it was one of the first original English language books by a Vietnamese author who tells the story of her homeland’s experience with its royal family, colonial France and during the American involvement in supporting the Republic of South Vietnam. Though the story is fiction, the historical settings and characterizations are true to life and told from the point of view of a professional middle-class family from Hue. The novel also brings the story of Vietnam up to current day, and gives the reader a glimpse into the new Vietnam that is emerging after the US lifting of the trade embargo, as told from the perspective of the first wave of Vietnamese expatriates who return to their place of birth. This poignant and intensely romantic saga portrays the experience of Vietnam’s recent history through its pain, tragedy and also the triumph of its culture and people.
Duong’s epic fiction is told amid the turmoil of Vietnam history, as succeeding daughters of Hue’s River Huong in Vietnam struggle to fulfill their destinies in a cross-cultural saga stretching from ancient Hue to romantic Paris to today’s Manhattan. Beginning in the Violet City of Hue, these stories of a Vietnamese royal concubine and her descendants span four generations. Taken together the tales of survival for these women reveal a Vietnamese female cultural identity that traces back to the extinct Kingdom of Champa in central Vietnam.
Daughters of the River Huong is also an ethnic saga and a portrait of Vietnam’s struggle for independence. This tale is wrapped in the nostalgic mystique of the dying days of the last Vietnamese monarchy, the brutality of colonization and revolution, and a family feud that brings together Andre, a troubled French Romeo and Si, a romantic Vietnamese girl. Against the web of history and the symbolic background of poetic verses of Baudelaire, this novel includes a story of forbidden love told in the knowing voice of a Vietnamese girl who, as she grows into adulthood, ennobles her forbidden bond into a love that transcends age, generations, and cultural barriers – from Vietnam, to France to America. The love story between Andre and Si signifies the death of French romanticism in her colony and the opening of war-torn Vietnam and its exotic culture to the inexorable modernism of global interdependence. This impressionistically painted portrait will remind the reader of the sweeping stories in Gone with the Wind and The Thorn Birds, with the humanist touches of The Joy Luck Club.
Daughters of the River Huong is published by RavensYard, an independent publishing house located in Northern Virginia’s high-tech corridor outside of Washington, D.C., where innovations in technology emerged that changed the business economics for a small independent publisher. This new technology included innovations in high-speed printing, digital storage, book warehousing and marketing, as well as the revolution in book buying habits created by the internet. RavensYard’s mission is to bring worthy titles to market and to provide a discriminating outlet of literary merit for emerging writing talent. Since it began operation in 1998, RavensYard Publishing, Ltd. has reviewed hundreds of manuscripts and has selected 24 submissions for publication so far. In its search for new authors, RavensYard approached Duong and selected her manuscript for publication because of its artistic and literary merit.
Daughters of the River Huong, like all RavensYard titles, is available online from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, the publisher and at wherever books are sold. Retail book sellers can order Daughters of the River Huong and other RavensYard titles at wholesale from Ingram Book Company. Civic, fraternal, community associations seeking pre-approved discounts for boxed purchases should contact the publisher at info@ravensyard.com
