In his essay "The Storyteller", Walter Benjamin distinguishes between two species of narrators: the one who stays at home and preserves the local legends and traditions, and the one who travels abroad and returns with news of exotic places and thrilling adventures. In the last few years, however, we seem to be hearing more and more from a third type of storyteller: the one who has been forced to leave home and whose only recourse is to transform the experience of exile and dislocation into art. Tran Vu's idiosyncratic voice is one of them. New York Times Book Review