Outline

It is Hanoï in 1954 and the war in Indochina is raging. Mai, a young Annamese girl, falls in love with an exiled French soldier from Brittany.

A border in a Catholic convent, Mai looks after wounded French soldiers. It is there that she meets Yann, shortly after he turns 18 years old. To prevent him from being sent back to the front, the young girl uses all possible subterfuges. Her behaviour stirs the attention and curiosity of the soldier.

The day of the festival of Têt (New Year), Mai refuses to marry the man that her father, a prominent judge, has chosen for her. Her stubborness puts her beyond the pale of her family . Mai and Yann marry in haste on the edge of a beautiful lake, the day before Yann returns to the front. Read more.

Press reviews

« On a weft a thousand times wound, with the subtlety of a silk weaver, she unfolds the treasures of the poetic imagination to tell the most tragic of stories. A gentle violence emanates from her text capturing the reader’s attention from beginning to end. » - Jean-Christophe Buisson, Le Figaro Magazine

« These ‘Soft Shadows’ are enclosed within a devastating and strangely tranquil beauty ; the spectacle of nature brought about by Hoai Huong Nguyen as she renders shifting patterns of beauty through poetry is staggering, and the notion that such powerful feelings may be kindled from within our tiny lives is appeasing. » - Jeanne de Ménibus, ELLE