Inside Infinity - by Vinh Quyen (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Time in the narrative of Inside Infinity takes place just over ten days. However, historical events recounted in the novel span across one hundred years, from the uprising of King Duy Tan in 1916. History is not providing a stage for the characters to act upon; rather, history here is scraps of impressions that awakens the main character's desire to find genetic code.

The main character is a Vietnamese young man who has lived in America for several years collecting documents to write his masters thesis "The Country of Dai Nam - A Great Power of East Asia." His academic articles also surprise those who are used to thinking of Vietnam as a weak country: the writings confirm an analysis made by the World Bank, that the Vietnam of 1820 was a nation with an average personal income approaching the world average, becoming one of the five largest economies in East Asia, a feat that until now, nearly two centuries later, Vietnamese people have yet to replicate.

Then one day he suddenly learns he has a father living alone in Hue, who has fallen into a coma. The young man goes to be with his father, who passes away just ten days later. During this time, the father wakes briefly one final moment; he looks at his son and holds his hand, their first and also their last connection. But that is enough. The young man feels he is now complete.

Those ten days in the deserted villa, exploring shelves of ancient books, "conversing" with his father, a PhD of Ethnology, via scattered notes found in a laptop, the son spends searching for his roots... Each character's journey of mending fractures to connect the infinite past of the clan and of the Vietnamese people is the theme of the novel.