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‘The Boat raises the bar for Australian writing.’PETER CRAVEN, Heat’Nam Le is . . . a disturber of the peace.’Consider the subjects of his stories: a child assassin in Colombia (‘Cartagena’), an ageing New York artist desperate for a reconciliation with his daughter (‘Meeting Elise’), a boy’s coming of age in a rough Victorian fishing town (‘Halflead Bay’), before the first atomic bomb falls in Japan (‘Hiroshima’), The suffocations of theocracy in Iran (‘Tehran Calling’).¬† This astonishing range is topped and tailed by accounts of the uneasy reunion of a young Vietnamese writer in America with his ex-soldier father, and by the title story ‚Äì the escape of a group of exhausted refugees from the Vietcong in a wallowing boat.’One might be permitted to think, after all this high seriousness and intensity, Nam Le can’t do funny.¬† But this criminally talented 29-year-old can do that as well.’BARRY OAKLEY, Australian Literary Review’Stunning’The Times’A fearless new Australian voice that accepts no geographical limits: these are stories of leaping power and the most breath-taking grace and intimacy.’HELEN GARNER’Wonderful stories that snarl and pant across our crazed world . . . an extraordinary performance.¬† Nam Le is a heartbreaker, not easily forgotten.’JUNOT DIAZ’The fiction debut of the year.’JAMES LEY, Australian Book Review’The best book debut of 2008.’New York Magazine’The runaway literary success of 2008.’Weekend Australian
