El cap i la cua del drac

Vietnam is a paradigmatic showcase of "romance-free" (unethical, after all) capitalism, but it is also still a magnificent melting pot of traditions that resist the pulse of Western influence as best they can. This book narrates the immersion of a young writer who goes to seek her life just after publishing her first and promising novel. Marta Soldado went from Saigon to Hanoi working as a headmaster and teacher, writing among drunken young millionaires, low-class Vietnamese survivors of the lower class, and European and American expats with very different ties to the Asian dragon. He leaves us a good example combining the raw testimony of a chaotic world and prose with outbursts of extraordinarily evocative lyricism.