Mourning Headband for Hue

The author's narrative burns with firsthand accounts, her own and those of others who shared their stories, as they all were trapped in blasted houses, churches and makeshift shelters, wounded, starving, sick and overrun by the Communists and their squads of vengeful executioners...[A] searing first-person account of the misery of war visited upon her family, neighbors and countrymen, caught in senseless, chaotic horror...A visceral reminder of war's intimate slaughter.

* Kirkus Reviews *

Nha Ca relates countless moments of terror she and her extended family members suffered and shares stories told to her by others who faced similarly dire circumstances. It's an intimate—and disturbing—account of war at its most brutal, told from the point of view of civilians trying to survive the maelstrom.

* Publishers Weekly *

To this day, her harrowing account—of war casualties, searches and arrests, ideological purges—generates intense debates about accountability during war time.

* Shelf Awareness *

...[A] searing eyewitness account...It makes for an intimate—and disturbing—account of war at its most brutal told from the point of view of civilians trying to survive the maelstrom.

* VVA Veteran *

This is a worthy addition to accounts that help readers understand the Vietnam War. . . . Highly recommended.

* Choice *

On the whole, scholars will find this memoir invaluable for understanding the American War in Vietnam as an internal civil war between the Vietnamese.

* H-Net Reviews H-War *

In her translation of A Mourning Headband for Hue, Olga Dror has traversed the terrain of contemporary Vietnamese literature, selected a wonderful gem, Gii Khăn Sô Cho Hu by Nhã Ca, and made it accessible to an English readership. . . . It is simultaneously an account of the experience of civilians trapped in a city under siege and a literary response to the brutalities of war by a leading poet and writer of South Vietnam.

* Journal of Vietnamese Studies *

Mourning Headband for Hue is Nhã Ca's searing condemnation of the brutality of war.

* Michigan War Studies Review *

A work of great historical and literary value ideal for use in the classroom, Mourning Headband for Hue highlights overlooked voices and facets of the Vietnam War, meriting inclusion among the classics of wartime fiction.

* Southeast Asian Studi