We are BEYOND EXCITED to host the official launch party for THE THREE DAUGHTERS OF ANNAM, the hotly anticipated new novel by Columbia native and perennial Skylark favorite, Phong Nguyen! Come and join us and our local literary community for a celebration of a wonderful book and a wonderful author! Phong will be in conversation with a Skylark alum (and wonderful writer herself!) Abby Manzella.

The story spans three generations, three continents and almost ninety years, and was inspired by the real history of Phong’s family and their immigration to the United States.

In 1935 in the city of Nam Dinh in northern Việt Nam, Nhung, Mai, and Anh are inseparable and deeply loyal to each other. Growing up in vastly different worlds, yet united by their dreams, these three women navigate the treacherous French occupation, where even uttering "Việt Nam" becomes an act of rebellion.
 
Their lives soon diverge, sending each of their family lines down drastically different paths from Việt Nam to Paris to the United States. But their goals are the same: survive, thrive, and triumph over the adversities they and their homeland have endured. And while distance and time have separated them, their childhood bonds remain strong and the lives of their families will forever be entwined.

Phong Nguyen is the author of three novels: Bronze Drum, Roundabout: An Improvisational Fiction, and The Adventures of Joe Harper; and two short fiction collections: Pages from the Textbook of Alternate History and Memory Sickness and Other Stories. He is the Miller Family Endowed Chair in Literature and Writing at the University of Missouri, where he teaches fiction-writing.