Bronze Drum by Phong Nguyen

 

This is the retelling of the Vietnamese story of the Trung sisters in the Au Lac region in 40 AD.  Trung Trac is the elder sister, always disciplined and making sure that she fulfilled all the expectations of a nobleman's daughter.  The younger sister, Trung Nhi, is more creative and less worried about meeting others' expectations.  The two train in poetry, martial arts and song.

In that time period, those in the Au Lac region had been defeated by the Han Dynasty of China and were subject to their rules.  One of those concerned marriage.  The Au Lac women were free to take lovers and have children rather than marriage if that was their desire.  The Han insisted that noblewomen must marry.

When their father falls afoul of the Han's expectations, they paid a surprise visit to the palace.  There they beheaded the father, the husband of one sister and the lover of another.  The sisters along with their pregnant mother were beaten and turned out from the palace.  They decided that they would not be defeated but would create a revolution of women and defeat the Han.  Using a bronze drum and it's various beats to communicate in battle, the women were successful.

Phong Nguyen was born in a small village outside Hanoi.  He is now a Professor of Writing at Missouri University.  I listened to this novel narrated by Quyen Ngo who has also narrated such novels as Discipline, The Mountains Sing and Dust Child.  The narration of the drum in battle was effective.  The book follows the sisters through their childhood into their early adulthood as they find love and then hate for the Han Dynasty when their worlds are shattered.  This book is recommended for multicultural readers.