In The Mountains Sing, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai weaves a story about 20th-century Việt Nam spanning four generations—from the Japanese occupation and the Great Hunger in the 1930s and 40s to the brutal Land Reform, and the Việt Nam war and its aftermath in the 1980s. The chapters alternate between two main characters the grandmother and granddaughter, as one looks back at the past and the sacrifices she has had to make to keep her family alive, and the other looks towards the future, and the hope of a life without hostility.

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