Lady of the Realm [Paperback]

One day there will be peace in Vietnam. But not before more war. Touched by the Lady of the Realm, Liên dreams of bones and bodies under the sea. The prescient warnings from the Lady weigh heavily on Liên, who is burdened by her inability to save everyone. But she knows that the Lady speaks most to those who listen. Set against the background of the Vietnam war and in its aftermath the rule by the Communist regime, in The Lady of the Realm, we follow Liên’s path across many decades that are punctuated by endless war and suffering. Yet even in the most desperate of times, Liên refuses to be ruled by fear and anger and persists in her hope for a peaceful future. For some, it will be too late.

Hoa Pham is a psychologist, author and playwright. She has written seven previous books. Her novella Wave has been optioned as a film, and rights for a translation have been sold to Vietnam. Hoa won the Best Young Writer Award from the Sydney Morning Herald for her novel Vixen and The Other Shore won the Viva La Novella Prize. Her play Silence was on the VCE drama list in 2010. Hoa is also the founder of Peril magazine, an Asian-Australian online arts and culture magazine. Hoa has received funding support from the Australia Council of the Arts and has been on an Asialink residency in Vietnam, and fellowships at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre and the Goethe Institute Berlin. She has a doctorate in creative arts and also holds master degrees in both creative writing and psychology. She lives in Melbourne.