Faraway the Sothern Sky is one of my most memorable reads this year. The impact such a small book had on me was astounding. It dabbles the line between fiction and nonfiction, detailing the life of Ho Chi Minh, secifically his immigration and time in paris. Not only is it informative on it's own, but it also provides sources for the reader to expllore if they please. I found that some of the writing felt too plain but that this lended to the dense political theming of the book, making it accessible for readers while still being entertaining and educational.

3,5

In 'Faraway the Southern Sky' Joseph Andras traces the steps of the young Nguyen Ai Quoc (later known as Ho Chi Minh) in Paris, 1919. He was in his late twenties then and wholly unknown.

Apart from some eye witness accounts and a police report (he was being followed early on) there is not much known about Nguyen's years in Paris. We see him become increasingly politically active, his demands become gradually bolder, his leadership of the 'Annamite' diaspora grow and he is at the right place as the Versailles Treaty is negotiated. The addresses he lived at are known as well and Andras' duly visits them all, so we get an interesting tour through Paris.

The last book I read about the French in Indochina was Eric Vuillard's sarcastic 'An Honourable Exit' about the embarrassing exit. This is set 35 years earlier, but has some similarities, in that it is a very factual account made literary by the inclusion of philosophical questions.

I appreciated Andras' approach more though, because he raises more interesting questions. I was also impressed by the research done and the wide knowledge that I felt held back in order to keep the focus strictly on these early years.

Still, overall, I found myself craving for more information - but clearly that's my fault: I should have read a biography rather than this literary work.

Prior to reading this book I had heard of Ho Chi Minh but knew very little about his life and political actions. This story was written in a historical fiction style which painted a picture of his life as a young man rather than a well known political figure, and how his background and struggles shaped his politics.

The writing was a little too poetic at times, which actually made it a bit difficult to read. A quote to give some context to the writing style:

"It takes only a rose, said one day the man with rubber sandals, the man of shore and shadows, the pariah whose head was held so high, for all that is arbitrary in the world to cry out in the prisonerʻs heart."

3.5/5
I would recommend this to someone studying Ho Chi Minh and is interested in the topic already.

I'm interested in the early life of the man who would become known as Ho Chi Minh, so when I saw that this novel, covering Ho's years in France was being published, I looked forward to reading it. Faraway the Southern Sky offers a great deal of information about Ho's life during these years, but I found it strangely inaccessible due to both the writer's style and the extent to which the writer muses upon what is unknowable.

The novel is written in second person with the "you" being the writer himself. This choice creates an extra layer of distance not just between the reader and Ho, but also between the reader and the writer. The writer's message seems to be "I know neither myself nor Ho, so I will try to build a castle of this nothingness."

Here's a relatively random sentence pair to serve as an example of the prose style in which this novel is written: "You can imagine him too without much trouble, standing on the platform—by which you mean that his appearance is clear and detailed in your mind, his immense forehead and his squinting myopic eyes, the confidence that captures the attention in the rare footage of him shot during his lifetime, his one-point-sixtyfive meters and his tie—striped perhaps—tucked under a thick waistcoat. If your daydream was cut short, there's at least this painting, three-by-five, signed Brodsky, which, though one more daub to blame on social realism, has the rare merit of showing what was at play that July 19." So much and so little occur simultaneously in those two sentences.

Faraway the Southern Sky is a relatively brief book, but over 100 pages of this kind of prose is more than I can stomach—call me an illiterate cretin if you like. That's the truth of my experience with this book.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.

A relatively short read, that crosses genres and provides a lyrical historical fiction on the early life of Ho Chi Minh. With his early life shrouded in mystery, this imagines his life in France, before his rise to power in Vietnam.

Look, I'm confused about this book, as a Vietnamese-American. Ho Chi Minh City will always be Saigon to my mother and to me. Ho Chi Minh was a communist, let's not forget that. Let's also not forget that he sent funds to the Viet Cong to assist in their fight siding with the North Vietnamese and against the South Vietnamese and US militaries.

Still, this is beautifully written.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

I loved Tomorrow They Won't Dare to Murder Us and was looking forward to this book.

Faraway the Southern Sky is an interesting novella. It explores Ho Chi Minh's formative years in Paris -- most of what we know is drawn from the spies who tailed Minh! The premise of this book fascinated but I found myself a little unhappy with the pacing.

i didn’t love this as much as i thought i would, which is a bummer — because i thought it would be an instant favorite.

quiet, short and sweet, excellent perspective especially for third world solidarity movements. i'd be excited to read more from the author.