Tales of Vietnam

Tales of Vietnam is a literary collection of original folktales inspired by the spirit, rhythm, and moral depth of Southeast Asian storytelling traditions. Across villages, rivers, forests, coasts, and mountains, these stories unfold quietly-guided by wind, water, clay, animals, and unseen forces that listen as much as they act. A bamboo grove remembers forgotten names. A river refuses to bear a bridge built without respect. A tiger guards the rice fields in silence. A lantern floats until grief is finally spoken aloud. Rather than retelling known myths, this collection offers newly written tales shaped like folklore: restrained, symbolic, and timeless. The characters are ordinary people-fishers, weavers, potters, children, elders-placed briefly at the edge of consequence, where personal desire meets the balance of the world. Nature in these stories is not a backdrop, but a presence. It responds. It remembers. It resists when pushed too far. Each tale explores themes of memory, responsibility, restraint, loss, and communal harmony, echoing the oral traditions of Vietnam and the wider Southeast Asian cultural landscape. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white engravings in a classic Victorian style, Tales of Vietnam is designed as a quiet, enduring book-meant to be read slowly, returned to often, and kept. This collection will appeal to readers of literary folklore, myth-inspired fiction, and contemplative storytelling, as well as to anyone seeking stories that value meaning over spectacle. Open the book. Listen closely. Let the stories remember something for you.