Böcker av Vinh Quyen

Time in the narrative of Inside Infinity takes place just over ten days. However, historical events recounted in the novel span across one hundred years, from the uprising of King Duy Tan in 1916. History is not providing a stage for the characters to act upon; rather, history here is scraps of impressions that awakens the main character's desire to find genetic code.The main character is a Vietnamese young man who has lived in America for several years collecting documents to write his masters thesis "The Country of Dai Nam - A Great Power of East Asia." His academic articles also surprise those who are used to thinking of Vietnam as a weak country: the writings confirm an analysis made by the World Bank, that the Vietnam of 1820 was a nation with an average personal income approaching the world average, becoming one of the five largest economies in East Asia, a feat that until now, nearly two centuries later, Vietnamese people have yet to replicate.Then one day he suddenly learns he has a father living alone in Hue, who has fallen into a coma. The young man goes to be with his father, who passes away just ten days later. During this time, the father wakes briefly one final moment; he looks at his son and holds his hand, their first and also their last connection. But that is enough. The young man feels he is now complete.Those ten days in the deserted villa, exploring shelves of ancient books, "conversing" with his father, a PhD of Ethnology, via scattered notes found in a laptop, the son spends searching for his roots... Each character's journey of mending fractures to connect the infinite past of the clan and of the Vietnamese people is the theme of the novel.

As conveyed through the title, the characters in the novel suffer a similar fate to that of 'debris', a concept meant to evoke the images of the physical debris left over from the destruction caused by the recently ended Vietnam War. In this case however, the 'debris' is intangible and largely internal, found in the historical setting of the book, in society, in the characters' families, and even the psychological and emotional 'debris' of each individual person. The novel is a story not unique to Vietnam, but is one that applies to any morden day post-war period.Writers' Association Publishing HouseI finished Debris of Debris today. What a marvelous novel! The inter-related stories that make up the novel are fascinating and often charming. Your variety of characters and their stories give a poignant and comprehensive portrait of, as you write in your acknowledgements, "the lost generation of young Vietnamese intellectuals." Reading their lives saddened me once again, and in a very personalized way-because I could connect to them-that once we had tried to kill each other, and too often succeeded. In short, I was both enlightened and moved by the book. I'm very impressed also that you wrote it in English.Wayne Karlin - American veteran writer - Letter to the authorAt the moment, Vietnamese literature is lacking such a selection for English-speaking audiences. In this sense, Vinh Quyen's Debris of Debris is firmly planted at the center of a cultural crossroads.Zac Herman - Youth Weekly