Vietnamese novelist Dr. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai inspires audience at SIBF
- Last updated: November 8, 2025 | 10:19
Raghib Hassan, Staff Reporter
The Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF), turned 44 on Wednesday. One of the most eagerly-awaited annual events of the region, the SIBF is going bigger and brighter with the passage of time, standing tall in its diversity. It has not only attracted book-lovers from across the region, but also managed to draw literary giants from around the world. In its past, it has rolled out the red carpet for Nobel Laureates and Man Booker Prize winners, and Bollywood stars to football icons. This year also is no exception.
On Thursday evening, SIBF welcomed internationally bestselling and award-winning Vietnamese novelist Dr. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai. Dr. Nguyễn is the author of thirteen books in Vietnamese and English, most recently the global bestselling novels “The Mountains Sing” and “Dust Child.” Her writing has been translated into more than twenty-five languages.
She was pleasantly surprised at the magnitude of the event. A regular at global literary fests, she expressed her happiness to be at the SIBF, a maiden visit for her. Accompanied by her supportive husband, she took part in a panel discussion on “Journeys Through Time,” which took place at Forum 2 of Sharjah Expo Centre, the home of SIBF.
She shared the panel with Bahraini novelist and Endodontist, Aqeel Al-Mosawi and writer and researcher Taissier Khalaf, and others. Dr. Nguyễn thanked the organisers of the fest and underlined that she was “in awe of this place.” Charming the audience with her magnetic presence, she did not allow the audience to even blink — so effective were her words.
Inviting the audience to visit and explore her country and its glorious history, she emphasised that “there is a direct flight to Vietnam from Dubai and I hope you all can travel to Vietnam soon. It is very affordable!”
“I want to tell you that Vietnam should not be known for just wars; we are a country with more than 4,000 years of history and culture. I want to let people know about this through my writings,” she emphasised. “We are a small country, but we were dominated by many empires in the past. We were invaded by Mongolians, Chinese, Japanese, then French colonised us for many decades and then American Army was also in Vietnam for 20 years. So we had to do many things to survive and my job as a novelist is to document our history and the present the courage of our people.”
She added that she understood her parents when she became a writer. Talking about her book, “The Mountains Sing,” she revealed: “I too had grandmother and both my grandparents had died before I was born. So growing up, I was always jealous of my friends, who had grandmothers to tell them stories to put them to sleep. So I always went to my friends’ homes to listen stories from them. I told myself that one day I am going to write a book with a grandmother in it, so I could also have a grandmother — and that is how my book came into being.”
Talking about the importance of research she said: “The job of a novelist is to make fictional keep real, and we do this with lots of research. It took seven years for me to write “The Mountains Sing.” The book is a life of a family since 1930 to 1990. Lots of things happened in all those years. Therefore, I had to do plenty of research. I went to actual locations and met with many survivors for this book.” Talking about the process of her writing she said that writing was about “bringing emotions on to the page.”
“My publisher told me that “your job as a writer is to make your readers cry.” A character should have the power to move you, she added. Quoting a filmmaker she said: “As a filmmaker, you can’t make a good film until your hands tremble behind the camera. In the same way, I feel that as a novelist, I can’t write a good book unless my hand trembles when I write it.” She was so engrossed with her book that her husband had warned that it was going to kill her.
“I would spend most of the time on my writing table,” she recalled. Travelling back to her childhood memories, she said “I saw devastation in Vietnam from very close quarters, while I was 7-year-old and I told myself that the human race should learn from the consequences of war. There should not be another war on this earth. But we have failed to learn from the past. Look at Gaza, how many people have died. Look at Ukraine. This should be stopped now. I strongly feel that the human race would make itself extinct one day. Look what we do to our countries. What we do to our environment is devastating, but we are not waking up.”
Over 12 days, SIBF 2025 will feature more than 1,200 events, including panel discussions and sessions. Of these, 300 events fall under the cultural programme, delivered by 66 international speakers from 19 countries, 62 Arab speakers from 20 countries, and 30 Emirati participants. Speakers from 10 countries are participating for the first time: Iceland, Jamaica, Nigeria, Mali, Chad, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea, Senegal, and Vietnam.