Vo Nghia

"Nghi Vo is so good."—NPR on The Brides of High HillEvery story begins somewhere.On the banks of the Ya-lé River, the town of Luntien gathers to celebrate the start of the rainy season, but the celebration is marred by the arrival of refugees from the sea. Everyone has a story about the foreigners newly in their midst—lazy, violent, unwanted—while the refugees themselves grieve the loss of the home they loved.Cleric Chih, very recently still Novice Chih, is also a stranger in Luntien. A moment of carelessness and bad luck leaves them waiting tables as they struggle to establish themself as a real cleric. A cleric’s job is to listen andrecord, but the stories emerging in Luntien are ugly and violent, as hard to predict as the river itself. With their hoopoe companion Almost Brilliant by their side, Chih must help the refugees while also unraveling a mystery that may have roots in their own faraway home in the abbey of Singing Hills.In the seventh entry of the award-winning Singing Hills series, we meet Chih and Almost Brilliant just beginning their journey together as Chih assumes their place on the road and in the world.The novellas of the Singing Hills series are standalone stories linked by the Cleric Chih, and may be read in any order.The Empress of Salt and FortuneWhen the Tiger Came Down the MountainInto the RiverlandsMammoths at the GatesThe Brides of High HillA Mouthful of Dust

Hunger makes monsters in this dark new tale in Nghi Vo''s Hugo Award-winning Singing Hills Cycle."Nghi Vo is so good."?NPR on The Brides of High HillWandering Cleric Chih of Singing Hills and their hoopoe companion Almost Brilliant come to the river town of Baolin chasing stories of a legendary famine. Amid tales of dishes served to royalty and desserts made of dust, they discover the secrets of what happens when hunger stalks the land and what the powerful will do to hide their crimes.Trapped in the mansion of a sinister magistrate, Chih and Almost Brilliant must learn what happened in Baolin when the famine came to call, and they must do so quickly... because the things in the shadows are only growing hungrier.The Singing Hills Cycle has been shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award, the Locus Award, and the Ignyte Award, and has won the Crawford Award and the Hugo Award.The novellas are standalone stories linked by the Cleric Chih, and may be read in any order.The Empress of Salt and FortuneWhen the Tiger Came Down the MountainInto the RiverlandsMammoths at the GatesThe Brides of High HillA Mouthful of Dust

A career-spanning, slipcased monograph in two volumes presenting the work of one of Asia's most thoughtful and innovative architects. With rising populations around the world and the pressures of looming climatic catastrophe, the work of Vo Trong Nghia is a call for architecture to transform itself from a source of pollution to a reason for hope. Nor is this idea anecdotal: the World Green Building Council estimates that 39% of energy-related carbon emissions can be attributed to buildings. An awareness of architecture's responsibilities has permeated the profession in the developed world, while new ideas and solutions are coming from places where these issues are most acute. Following a long recovery from decades of war, Vietnam has emerged as one of the most exciting centres of design Asia - led largely by the work of Vo Trong Nghia, born one year after the end of the Vietnam War, whose work has gained an international following. As a student in Japan, he studied under the minimalist architect Hiroshi Naito and encountered the work of the Colombian architect Simon Velez, a proponent of bamboo architecture with its large spans and high, voluminous spaces - the ideas and teachings of both were to have a profound influence on his own designs. The buildings of Vo Trong Nghia Architects, established in Ho Chi Minh City in 2006, make clear reference to these sources and influences of the past, and to Vo's own adherence to the Five Precepts of Buddhist teaching. The architect's two main themes - green architecture and bamboo as a building material - form the basis of this two-volume celebration of his work. From the Wind and Water Bar, his first foray into bamboo as a building material, to resort complexes, art installations and his game-changing series of residences, House for Trees, Vo Trong Nighia: Building Nature proves that green architecture creates local relevance, beauty and elegance in its own right.