Timber & Lụa

Nào (The Six Tons of Water) and Hoàng (Underneath) join forces for a lyrical bilingual story collection. Each tale is presented three times, first in a combination of English and Vietnamese with a glossary of Vietnamese words, then in English, and finally in Vietnamese. “Broccoli” consists of a dialogue between an unnamed woman and her lover, Damien, in which their discussion about a head of broccoli she left in his fridge morphs into a coded conversation about their relationship (“Lizards and con rắn, all loài bò sát, really, they tắm nắng because they’re trying to get their blood đủ nóng to kill fungi,” Damien tells her in the first version, which is translated later as “lizards... sun-bathe because they’re trying to get their blood hot enough to kill fungi,” to which she responds, “Am I supposed to be the fungus in this metaphor?”). The elliptical closer, “Mid-27th Century,” follows a detective in the distant future who relies on philosophy and a Magic 8 Ball to track down a pair of twins who stole the 24th century. Throughout, the authors craft poetic rhythms and sounds, highlighting the potency of language. Readers seeking a linguistic challenge will enjoy these hypnotic tales. (Nov.)