Author: Khanh Ha

Publisher:  Gival Press

ISBN: 978-1940724454

'Phượng. Dawn or dusk, you could see mottled-brown sandpipers
running along the seashore, legs twinkling, looking for
food. Twilight falling. I followed their tracks, like twiggy
skeletons strewn across the marbled sand until they ended
under the frothing waves.'

I have to admit, the title of this book intrigued me the moment I saw it. 'Her: The Flame Tree,' is an undeniably compelling thing to call a novel. I had to know what this book was about and I found that, through reading it, the title took on a whole new meaning that I wasn't even expecting!

This is a novel about life. A novel about love. A novel about friendship. All three are told through three interlocking stories through the magic of author Khanh Ha.

Set in Vietnam, 'Her: The Flame Tree,' tells the unforgettable story of a woman named Phuong and the men who changed her life in very different ways. Phuong's father, Canh was the first man who changed her life after he adopted her as a baby from an orphanage.

Canh was a eunuch, and, therefore, unable to have children of his own, so he adopted the infant Phuong despite little being known about her birth parents. As Phuong grew, she took in the lessons that her father taught and the stories that he told her about his time as an Imperial eunuch for the emperor. These stories are woven throughout the novel, as well as the story of a man named Jonathan Edwards, whom Phuong fell in love with as a woman.

This is a novel for lovers and for dreamers. The kind of book that you know will stay in your heart for a long time after you are done reading it. I was so impressed and moved by the author's writing that I found myself tearing up at some points and unable to put the book down to do anything!

'Her: The Flame Tree,' is truly a work of literary art like no other. I encourage you to read this as soon as you can get your hands on it!

About Khanh Ha

Award winning author Khanh Ha is a nine-time Pushcart nominee, finalist for The Ohio State University Fiction Collection Prize, Mary McCarthy Prize, Many Voices Project, Prairie Schooner Book Prize, The University of New Orleans Press Lab Prize, Prize Americana, and The Santa Fe Writers Project. He is the recipient of the Sand Hills Prize for Best Fiction, The Robert Watson Literary Prize in Fiction, The Orison Anthology Award for Fiction, The James Knudsen Prize for Fiction, The C&R Press Fiction Prize, The EastOver Fiction Prize, The Blackwater Press Fiction Prize, The Gival Press Novel Award, and The Red Hen Press Fiction Award. You can find out more about Khanh and his books here: http://www.authorkhanhha.com