Swim Against the Current

	Vietnamese Writers Honored with Southeast Asian Writers Award
	Artists, Writers Play Core role in Development of Vietnam's Socialist-oriented Cultural Industry

The reason I picked up the novel was because the author, Nguyễn Tuấn Thành, is an acquaintance, an old colleague, and someone with whom I share a good feeling. Secondly, as far as I know, Thành is not someone deeply involved in literature, so this came as a bit of a surprise. Thirdly, I believe this novel, and the process of its creation, was driven by nothing more than the need to write and the writer’s own emotions.

I held the book (more carefully than usual), eager to dive in. Perhaps this feeling comes from something many of us share: a tendency to cherish things that are rare, interesting, or that reflect something we’ve long wanted but haven’t yet had, or haven’t yet been able to do.

Cover of the book "Giữa những con sóng" by Nguyễn Tuấn Thành.

In a conversation with Tuấn Thành about the meaning of the “wave” in his novel, he explained that it represents the wave of human destiny, of inner life. The wave of the times, of human affairs… There is another kind of wave that he mentioned with caution. I suppose we’ll have to read the novel to truly explore it. That wave is this: is there such a thing as a wave of human history?

Human history is always shifting. The impermanent universe constantly stirs up new waves. Now it seems to be pushing humanity toward a point of transition - fierce, uncertain, and seemingly beyond our grasp. Yet it draws all living beings into its current. Does Thành’s story hint at this wave? Does it allude to it, or even carry a premonition?

To write about waves, the author must have felt them, have been living with them, and that they live within him too. But what I see clearly is that Thành is swimming against the waves. The waves of life seem to be flowing in the direction of “leaving the novel behind.” And yet, he writes. He even says he intends to write more. That, to me, is admirable. Going against the waves is difficult. It demands sacrifice. To accept that challenge is to swim upstream. What is it that he is swimming against the current to find? Is it what devoted writers have always sought? Perhaps it is his own heart - to see if it still knows how to ache and to love.

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