FIRE SUMMER

Thuy Da Lam's lyrical debut, FIRE SUMMER, a novel reminiscent of works by Viet Thanh Nguyen, Haruki Murakami, and George Saunders.

In the summer of 1991, twenty-three-year-old Maia Trieu eagerly accepts a research grant to study folklore in Vietnam, the country she once called home. When the grant sponsor presents a burdensome stipulation - that she transport plans to overthrow the government - Maia calls into question her patriotism, and must consult a colorful cast of characters before making her final decision. Maia and her entourage - a watchful government agent, an Amerasian singer, an American traveler, and a stray cat - struggle with the compromises that come with restoring the past and staying true to one's beliefs. The stories of these four unlikely friends intertwine with those of dead Vietnamese to create a magical, fantasy-meets-philosophy novel about transformation and self-discovery.

Thuy Da Lam was born in Central Vietnam and raised in the United States. She holds a B.A. from Hamilton College where she helped translate Vietnamese sources for Thomas A. Bass's Vietnamerica: The War Comes Home. Thuy also holds a Ph.D. from UH Manoa. Thuy has won the George A. Watrous Literary Prize for Fiction, the Myrtle Clark Writing Award and the John Young Scholarship in the Arts. Part of FIRE SUMMER appeared in Lost Lake Folk Opera: Black April Issue, in commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of the Vietnam War. Thuy currently resides in Hawaii.