The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends an impressive impersonation of Bob Dylan
A portrait of the revolutionary as a young man
RON JACOBS recommends an evocative novel that explores the time that Ho Chi Minh spent in Paris
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Here, Vermiglio, William Tell and Wolf Man
New releases from Thorpe and Morrison, Daria Kulesh, and Will Finn and Rosie Calvert
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ANDY MIAH advocates the use of AI to assist people by expanding access to global literature and culture
EWAN KOTZ relishes a veteran Glasgow band that have lost none of their verve for live performance
Faraway the Southern Sky: A Novel
Joseph Andras, Verso, £9.99
IN 1968, as war raged across Vietnam, the Vietnamese revolutionary popularly known as Ho Chi Minh wrote a new year’s message to the worldwide movement against the US war on the Vietnamese.
After somewhat poetically listing the ongoing war crimes of the US military, the letter ended with these words: “We enjoy the support of brothers and friends in the five continents. We shall win and so will you. Thank you for your support for the Vietnamese people.”
I wouldn’t read these words until the fall of that year; my anti-war consciousness was just taking shape. I was 13. I recall that, when I did read them that first time, it was like a light bulb going off. I could no longer consider any Vietnamese as an enemy. To do so would require demonising them — something I could no longer do after reading this simple and honest letter.
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