Opening with a quote from Irish writer James Joyce, "Absence is the highest form of presence," the novel guides readers through a blend of tangible events and subtle ambiguity. While the focus on the Hoa Hao religion was predetermined, Vu Thanh Son doesn't merely present research material. Instead, he explores the peripheries, using the subject as a thread connecting lives within a unique social context.

Set in Long Xuyen and Chau Doc between the pre-1945 period and around 1947, the novel portrays Vietnam facing Japanese fascists, French colonialists, American allies, and Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese forces. Remnants of the Southern secret societies linger. The country is in turmoil, a "dust storm" as described by Le Than Tran Trong Kim.

In this tumultuous era, individuals are like specks of dust. Two childhood friends, Tai and Ut Hien, embark on different paths, their fates diverging yet converging amidst the upheaval as they encounter their spiritual leader, Huynh Phu So, founder of the Hoa Hao religion.

The novel "Delta Waves" was published by Tre Publishing House in June. Photo:

Tai, disillusioned with the confines of formal education and yearning for a free-spirited life, finds solace in his small family with his gentle wife, Hue Man. However, their happiness is fleeting as they lose their child, followed by Hue Man's death. Meanwhile, Ut Hien pursues education and falls in love with Doanh Chau, the daughter of Canh Thien, owner of Vinh Xuong Pharmacy and a patriotic friend of Ut Hien's father.

The two friends, with their contrasting fates, are like modules within a system, or leaves adrift on the sea of life. Tai transforms from a small business owner into a devout Hoa Hao follower and a fearless patriot. Ut Hien, initially a scholar seeking advancement through education, becomes Tai's emotional anchor.

The narrative extends beyond the two friends to include Quang and Tam. Quang goes to France to study, encountering new horizons and progressive patriotic ideologies. Tam joins the Viet Minh, becoming a promising propagandist.

Patriotism burns within each of them, but the right doctrine and path remain uncertain. The "delta waves" are literally the ripples of the Mekong Delta, but philosophically, they represent the eternal waves of love and the restless current of those devoted to their country, immersed in the era's turbulence.

Vu Thanh Son is primarily a short story writer. His work, often exploring post-modern contexts and mindsets, might not be for all readers, but perhaps for specific moods. In this novel, his tone and style shift. Gone is the emphasis on fragmented structures and irony. He presents beautiful prose, with intentionally melancholic passages reminiscent of psychological and social novels. It seems Vu Thanh Son doesn't strive for artistry but for sincerity, using a simple style to capture the essence of the "distant South."

"Amidst the vast waters, the small boat rocks with every gust of wind, the cold seeping into clothes, sending shivers down the spine and stirring dreams of the open sea. Empty and vast, with no houses in sight, only a few gao trees in the distance and rice seedlings swaying above the water. A dark horizontal line at the horizon cuts across the flat water – the submerged tram forest. Occasionally, a tired bird flies by, or a fish leaps to catch its prey," writes Vu Thanh Son in a vivid descriptive passage.

And further: "Every afternoon, he would sit beneath the branches of the sau dau tree by the canal, listening to the wind whisper through the banana groves. August, the flood season. The fragrant smoke from someone's kitchen fills the air. He hasn't gone far, yet a deep longing arises, for the evening meal, for sour soup with ca linh and so dua flowers, for the sight of buffaloes pulling carts laden with young rice seedlings, for the smell of burning fields and ripe rice, for the sound of ca ro fish jumping to catch grains of rice, for the plaintive call of the coucal bird in the late afternoon, for the small hut nestled amidst the flooded fields... A cluster of water hyacinth with deep purple flowers drifts from the newly uncovered brushwood and settles at his feet. Bright yellow dien dien flowers dance beside the water, swaying with every gentle breeze."

As a Saigon native with northern roots who fell in love with the Mekong Delta, Vu Thanh Son doesn't overuse dialect. Yet, his novel vividly portrays the region. This isn't a forced literary device, but a journey into his consciousness, allowing him to inhabit the past and present of the Mekong Delta as an ordinary person.

Based on real historical figures and events, this remains a work of fiction. The meticulous research, as James Joyce noted, becomes an absence, allowing the "specks of dust" to emerge. Consequently, closing "Delta Waves" evokes an endless ripple of emotions.

Tran Nha Thuy