(Published in 2015)
“What drove me? Hope! Hope for the displaced, for the abandoned, for the lonely, and for those who believe in heaven.” (Dau-Thi-Cúc, who called herself Loan) In Loan – From the Life of a Phoenix, Isabelle Müller tells the true story of the emancipation of her mother Loan, a headstrong and rebellious Vietnamese woman who fled a forced marriage at the age of just twelve to find her way back to herself and to a free, self-determined life on a long and often dangerous odyssey through Vietnam, France, and Algeria. The historical backdrop to their search for identity is the cultural and political upheaval caused by French colonization, the Japanese invasion at the end of World War II, the partition of Vietnam in the 1950s, and France’s war against Algeria in the 1960s. Loan – From the Life of a Phoenix offers readers insight into a fairytale-like, yet at times archaic and brutal, culture in China’s neighboring country. It tells of dignity, tolerance, and acceptance, of an exotic culture from an almost forgotten time, and thus closes an important literary gap in the history of Vietnam.