Isabelle Müller (maiden name Gaucher) was born on May 25th, 1964, in Tours, France, as the youngest of five children from a Vietnamese mother and a French father. She grew up in poverty in a small French village.
After graduating from high school, she studied languages (German, English, and Russian) at François Rabelais University (Tours, France) and Centre d’Études Pratiques de Langues Vivantes (Tours, France) with the help of a state scholarship.
From 1985 onward, she worked in Germany as an interpreter and translator.
In the 1990s, she traveled through Southeast Asia with her mother, Dau Thi Cuc, known as Loan, and explored her Vietnamese roots and the stories connected to them.
In 2009, Krüger Verlag (S. Fischer) published Isabelle Müller’s biography Phönix Tochter – Die Hoffnung war mein Weg (Phoenix Daughter – Hope Was My Way). One of the topics covered in the book, sexual abuse, sparked widespread discussion. The author encouraged victims of sexual violence to break their silence and thereby break the power of the perpetrators. Over the course of three and a half years, she gave 150 readings in eight German federal states, appeared on television and radio, and was invited by Federal President Joachim Gauck in recognition of her commitment.
In July 2015, Isabelle Müller participated in the Amazon Kindle Storyteller Award 2015 with her next book, the biography Loan – Aus dem Leben eines Phönix (Loan – From the Life of a Phoenix), and reached the finals (top 5) out of approximately 1,000 submissions.
In May 2016, she founded the non-profit LOAN Foundation, which carries out educational projects for children from ethnic minorities in the poorest mountainous regions of northern Vietnam. She donates 100% of her book royalties to the LOAN Foundation.
In March 2018, the Vietnamese edition of Loan – Aus dem Leben eines Phönix (Loan – Từ cuộc đời một con chim phượng hoàng) was published by TRE Publishing House in Vietnam. The book was enthusiastically received and went into its third edition in 2019.
A fourth edition of Loan – From the Life of a Phoenix was published in February 2023 by General Publisher Ho Chi Minh City.
A documentary about Loan was broadcast on Vietnamese television in October 2019 in German, English, and Vietnamese.
In March 2022, the Vietnamese version of Phoenix Daughter – Hope Was My Way (Con gái của chim Phượng hoàng – Hy vọng là con đường của tôi) was published by General Publisher Ho Chi Minh City.
On June 19th, 2022, the children’s book Hip Hop in the Land of Ellsaby (first edition published by Verlag Krone in 2001) was re-released by General Publisher Ho Chi Minh City (Hip hop ở xứ sở của Ellsaby). The story, newly written and self-illustrated by the author, explores grief management and is told in three languages (Vietnamese, English, and German). Among other things, it aims to support Vietnamese children who have lost relatives due to the COVID-19 pandemic in coping with their grief.
Since the end of 2022, Hip Hop in the Land of Ellsaby has been available as separate editions in individual languages, in addition to the trilingual edition, and has been listed on Amazon since late 2022 (in German, English, and French).
The children’s book Hip Hop and the Golden Forest was published on Amazon at the end of 2022 in three languages (German, English, and French). The trilingual edition (Vietnamese, English, and German) was published in May 2023 by General Publisher Ho Chi Minh City.
On October 2, 2023, the book The Joy of Listening: How Good Relationships Make Us Strong (Knaur) was published in Germany. Co-authored by Isabelle Müller and renowned emergency physician Dr. Lisa Federle, the book became a Spiegel bestseller.
The Vietnamese versions of all the author’s works are distributed worldwide. All participating bookstores have committed to donating a portion of their proceeds to the LOAN Foundation:
- Tiệm sách vui vẻ ở Đức (Germany) – Facebook Page
- Tiệm sách Vui Vẻ ở Mỹ (U.S.A.) – Facebook Page
- Tiệm sách vui vẻ ở Việt Nam (Vietnam) – Facebook Page
- Tiệm sách vui vẻ ở Canada (Canada) – Facebook Page
- Tiệm sách vui vẻ ở Nhật (Japan) – Facebook Page
A detailed portrait of the author, her works, and the LOAN Foundation was broadcast nationwide on VTV4 on Vietnamese New Year’s Day (January 22, 2023) to an audience of millions (program “The Day of Return” / from minute 44).
Isabelle Müller’s new book, Only a Heartbeat Away from You, was released on March 8, 2024 (International Women’s Day) initially in Vietnamese. The novel is available from General Publisher Ho Chi Minh City, and a German edition is already in progress.
On March 8th, 2024, the Vietnamese TV channel VTV4 reported on Isabelle Müller’s novel Only a Heartbeat Away from You. The report is available on YouTube.
The children’s book Hip Hop and the Singing Master was published on Amazon on June 1st, 2024 (World Children’s Day) in three languages (German, English, and French). The trilingual edition (Vietnamese, English, and German) was released on the same day by General Publisher Ho Chi Minh City.
On December 3rd, 2024, Isabelle Müller’s book Loan – From the Life of a Phoenix was honored with the Vietnamese National Foreign Information Services Award in Hanoi.
Isabelle Müller has been happily married to German IT entrepreneur Stephan Müller since 1992. Both have two children.
