If You Liked Kristin Hannah’s ‘The Women’
Unsurprisingly Kristin Hannah’s latest novel, The Women, has been on the New York Times Bestseller list since its release earlier this year. If you haven’t picked it up yet, it’s well worth the investment, financially and read-time allotment. I couldn’t put it down (though it did get a bit long at times).
It’s a duo-timeline historical fiction set against the back drop of the Vietnam War and follows young nurse, Frankie, into the chaos/melee/upheaval/horrendousness of a war hospital and the aftermath of being a female veteran in an era that still belonged to men- because “there were no women in Vietnam.”
So while it’s been about six months since I’ve read The Women, it still haunts me. And has made me realize how little historical fiction I’ve read about the Vietnam War. I thought maybe there’d be others out there, like me, that wants to read more about this pivotal time in our history, so here’s a couple recommendations for you.
The Time Keepers by Alyson Richman
So technically I can’t really call this one a hidden gem because it doesn’t even release until October 15, 2024 - so who knows how well it’s going to do in the reading market? (Pretty well, I hope.)
I was lucky enough to get access to an advanced digital copy of the novel and am currently losing track of time as I get deeper into the story.
This novel is quite a different story from The Women, but achieves a similar purpose- to bring to light a facet of the Vietnam War and its aftermath.
Here’s the publisher’s synopsis:
An unforgettable novel that captures the power of longing, loss, and love, The Time Keepers transports us from 1979 suburban New York to war-torn Vietnam, revealing that sometimes the most unexpected friendships can save us.
Two women from different worlds, Grace and Anh, are indelibly changed when a runaway boy is found on a street in their small Long Island town. Brought together by the love of this child displaced by war, the women find friendship and healing from their own painful pasts when their lives intersect with a mysterious wounded Vietnam vet. The vet, Jack, works at the Golden Hours, a watch store that mends timepieces--and might even mend damaged souls.
Richman interweaves the journeys of these wonderfully diverse characters who will grip, fill, and break your heart--only to bring them together with the care and precision of an expert watchmaker, one piece at a time. Inspired by the true story of a Vietnamese refugee who entrusted the dramatic account of her escape from Vietnam to the author, and also that of a wounded veteran, Richman sheds light on those whose lives were forever impacted by the devastation of that war.
Monkey Bridge by Lan Cao
I read Monkey Bridge by Lan Cao in college- for a class, of course. Otherwise I probably would never have stumbled across it. As a world lit major, I read a ridiculous amount of books during my college years- a majority of which I don’t remember. This is not one of them. This one, I remember.
Here’s the publisher’s synopsis:
Hailed by critics and writers as powerful, important fiction, Monkey Bridge charts the unmapped territory of the Vietnamese American experience in the aftermath of war.
Like navigating a monkey bridge-a bridge, built of spindly bamboo, used by peasants for centuries-the narrative traverses perilously between worlds past and present, East and West, in telling two interlocking stories- one, the Vietnamese version of the classic immigrant experience in America, told by a young girl; and the second, a dark tale of betrayal, political intrigue, family secrets, and revenge-her mother's tale. The haunting and beautiful terrain of Monkey Bridge is the "luminous motion," as it is called in Vietnamese myth and legend, between generations, encompassing Vietnamese lore, history, and dreams of the past as well as of the future.
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