Bao Ninh

Bao Ninh (born 1952) is a Vietnamese novelist. During the Vietnam War he served with the Glorious 27th Youth Brigade. Of the five hundred who went to war with the brigade in 1969, he is one of ten who survived. A huge bestseller in Vietnam, The Sorrow of War is his first, and to date only, novel. "Sorrow of War" is a nonlinear narrative of Kien, a North Vietnamese soldier, during the Vietnam War, chronicling his loss of innocence, his lover, and faith in his country. Enormously popular across the world as a truthful account of the brutalities of war; however, it was soon banned after its release by the Communist regime of North Vietnam.