{"product_id":"the-zenith-isbn-9780143123712","title":"The Zenith","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMemory is the one who builds you a permanent court of justice. Memory is the one at your side from whom you cannot run...\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA sweeping tale of thwarted love, political intrigue, and the price of power\u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003e“The \u003ci\u003eDoctor Zhivago\u003c\/i\u003e of Vietnam” (\u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e)\u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003eabout Ho Chi Minh, the founding father of modern Vietnam, a man beloved by millions but shrouded in controversy and mystery\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eVietnam's most popular dissident writer, Duong Thu Huong has won acclaim for her exceptional lyricism and psychological acumen, as well as for her unflinching portraits of modern Vietnam and its culture and people. Built on 15 years of research, \u003ci\u003eThe Zenith\u003c\/i\u003e imagines the final months in the life of Ho Chi Minh—president of North Vietnam from 1945 until his death in 1969—at an isolated mountain compound where he is imprisoned both physically and emotionally. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eComplex, daring, and elegiac, Huong's novel weaves Ho Chi Minh's story together with narratives of members of his inner circle and a village elder, illuminating the personal costs of political struggle, the addictive quality of power and influence, and how a tragedy can threaten to engulf not just one individual but an entire nation. Most radically, it is a multidimensional portrait of Ho Chi Minh himself; a man who is often painted as a saint, martyr, or puppet, but whom Huong portrays as a real person whose life encapsulated humanity's capacity for vision, greed, pain, love, and fallibility. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn epic masterpiece that is both a gripping political thriller and a haunting excavation of the human heart, \u003ci\u003eThe Zenith \u003c\/i\u003eis an unforgettable novel that leaves readers unsettled, transformed, and closer to life's fundamental mysteries.\u003cb\u003e\u003cu\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eThe Zenith\u003c\/i\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “[\u003ci\u003eThe Zenith\u003c\/i\u003e] bravely imagines the final months of Ho Chi Minh’s life. It is the \u003ci\u003eDoctor Zhivago\u003c\/i\u003e of Vietnam, a book that explodes the sacred pieties of a Communist revolution by looking at the cost that revolution exacted on individual lives and romances . . . A vast and moving story about a nation liberated from colonialism only to be bound to an inhuman ideology, one that stripped even its heralded leader of his flesh and blood . . . a book that looks down on the Communist experiment from a lofty height and attempts to return it to a human scale. Remarkably, it succeeds, especially in its portrait of the country's leader.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e“In this wonderful novel, Duong Thu Huong fearlessly confronts the merciless regime, describing the devastating consequences of the Vietnam War. Through a few families and their intimate stories, she merges political tragedy with human tragedies.” —\u003ci\u003eElle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “\u003ci\u003eThe Zenith\u003c\/i\u003e, lyrically translated by husband-wife translators Stephen B. Young and Hoa Pham Young, is part modern Vietnamese fable, part tragedy . . . the idea of power clashing with conscience forms the core of the novel.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Toronto Star\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e“[Huong] turns her penetrating gaze toward the highest, most venerated seat of power in Communist Vietnam: the revolution's architect and saint, Ho Chi Minh . . . Huong [is] a master detective or the gutsiest of fiction writers.” —\u003ci\u003eMinneapolis Star-Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Told from multiple points of view via characters whose lives unwittingly intersect . . . A fluid, nuanced, and densely intricate look at a culture still relatively unknown to Western readers, Huong’s challenging novel offers rich detail and provocative insights.” —\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e “Huong’s lyrical narrative, developed at a deliberate pace, is sometimes reminiscent of Hermann Broch’s The Death of Virgil . . . it also has undertones of Anatoly Rybakov’s \u003ci\u003eChildren of the Arba\u003c\/i\u003et . . . a complex, politically daring story, much of which will be unfamiliar to Western readers—and that demands to be read for that very reason.” —\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Zenith\u003c\/i\u003e is worth the time and attention, every page revealing richer, deeper treasures, poetic and moving, a grand yet intimate canvas of history, ideology, love affairs, and tragic beauty — most of all beauty, of the country, of the women, and of the heart.” —\u003ci\u003eHistorical Novel Society\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Huong is an imposing figure in Vietnamese literature . . . Much as Hilary Mantel in her Cromwell books, Huong makes the historical personal . . . one has the sense of a Tolstoyesque breadth and depth of both landscape and character . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Zenith\u003c\/i\u003e represents a tour de force from an important writer taking great risks, political and literary. Beginning with a bold initial premise, Huong follows through with an epic on an impressive scale that does that premise justice.” —\u003ci\u003eFiction Writers Review\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  “This is an important book that blends passion, clarity, a great understanding of the human heart, and a keen desire to pay tribute to those lost to history.” —\u003ci\u003eLe Monde\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cu\u003ePraise for the work of Duong Thu Huong:\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Extraordinary and profoundly tragic.” —\u003ci\u003eBoston Sunday Globe\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“Astonishingly powerful.” —\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times Book Review\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“Breathtakingly original.” —\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eDuong Thu Huong\u003c\/b\u003e is an award-winning Vietnamese novelist and activist living in exile in Paris. Her novels include \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eParadise of the Blind\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e,\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNo Man’s Land\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e,\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMemories of a Pure Spring\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e, and \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNovel Without a Name\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e.\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304814432485,"sku":"NP9780143123712","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780143123712.jpg?v=1767742369","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-zenith-isbn-9780143123712","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}