Pohon Setan

Author(s): Ben Brown

Location(s): Java

Genre(s): Fantasy

Era(s): Modern

Location

Content

We were so pleased to add this book to our database, as it ticks so many of the boxes for us at TripFiction. A good storyline that would be even better read in location, in Vietnam: evocative of location whether strolling around Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi with the Alexander and Hanh, or negotiating the bustling and roaring traffic of downtown Saigon, in Cholon or around Notre Dame Basilica. This is the 1980s when guns were still commonplace on the streets, lawlessness still affected thousands upon thousands, women were struggling to find their place under the new regime, and when eveyone was coming to terms with the legacy of the war.

This is the story of three people and how their lives intertwine. Phuc, Hanh and Alexander all share a future that twists and turns like the alleyways of the Old Quarter in Hanoi.

The idea for the novel came to the author when she was on a flight between Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City in 2007, when she sat next a man who sold Asian brides, and who she later realised, was trafficking women.

The two locations of Hanoi and Saigon are really well drawn, sufficiently for readers to lose themselves in the descriptions of the frantic metropoles, balanced by rural scenes. The title, therefore, feels a little misleading, as The Herder operates partly out of Hanoi, and Cheung Hu out of Saigon. Two cities, over 1000km apart, wonderfully depicted.

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