Fears of writer Ho Anh Thai

The story collection is the childhood memories of Ho Anh Thai - a shy boy who was afraid to speak loudly, only greeted everyone with a small greeting, was afraid of cats, afraid of heights, afraid of getting sugar on his hands, and many other fears that the author confessed were childhood obsessions that still haunted him until later.

Writer Ho Anh Thai

However, through the stories presented in"When you grow up, you are no longer afraid",Readers also see the tireless efforts of a poor urbanite born during the war against America, through the difficult subsidy period to become a professional diplomat, a famous writer in the Vietnamese literary world after 1975 with many books translated into more than 10 languages, published in many countries around the world.

The book of more than 250 pages gives readers access to a family of civil servants from Hanoi, originally from Nghe An, in a famous family with Dr. Ho Sy Duong, with an anecdote of overcoming difficulties to become a famous mandarin under the Le Dynasty. It is this tradition that has fostered and nurtured people with diverse personalities, always nurturing the will to overcome difficulties and live strongly in the face of many changes of the times, whether during bombs, bullets or evacuation days, having to stay with others, surviving on mixed soup with just a few vegetables. It seems that the difficult living conditions have fostered the strong lifestyle of a family.

The stories are told simply, leisurely, without fuss, taking the reader to visit a family where the father is always strict with his shy youngest son. But that father is also a sensitive, funny person, fluent in French and Chinese. He did not forbid his son from reading Western novels like many other parents, even though Ho Anh Thai was only 8 years old at that time. The father has an extraordinary memory, knowing thousands of poems by heart... The father, for the sake of the family, went through many jobs such as collecting train tickets, guarding the train station in Laos during the French colonial period. Later, he became an editor for the Voice of Vietnam Radio, a great chess player and a class A football referee.

In"When you grow up, you're no longer afraid"There also appears the image of a mother in a Confucian family in Nghe An who was also very fond of literature. She sang her son a lullaby with Chinh Phu Ngam Khuc and other ancient poems. She wanted her son to pursue painting in the future - a field that she also loved. A hard-working, sickly mother but also determined to let her son transfer schools to avoid discrimination; or when she was sick, with only one man in the house, her youngest son, she insisted that the 17-year-old young man give her grandson an injection right away.

Book 'When you grow up, you are no longer afraid' by writer Ho Anh Thai.

The book also sparkles with memories of the brothers and sisters in Ho Anh Thai's family. Each person has a different personality, creating a family that seems complicated, but those personalities complement each other to become a family that lives seriously and is full of inner strength. The oldest brother is thoughtful and mature early, he was one of the first teachers on Cat Ba Island in the 1960s, then Vice Chairman of Cat Hai Island District. Another brother knew how to foresee the development of mechanical technology and chose to major in diesel engine engineering but was not lucky. Another brother inherited his father's personality, not afraid of anyone and not afraid of anything, later became Editor-in-Chief of the People's Representative Newspaper. The sisters are traditional women and follow the teaching profession.

The shyness of his youth was probably also the factor that helped the boy Ho Anh Thai always strive to overcome his fear. He practiced giving speeches, performing folk songs, studying foreign languages ​​and always worked hard to become a good student, finding ways to get acquainted with booksellers to buy the latest books. He fasted until he was too skinny to have money to buy books. After finishing primary school, he had his own bookshelf. At the age of 15, he quietly wrote and sent his stories to newspapers. At the age of 17, he had short stories published in the Literature and Arts Newspaper and the Army Literature and Arts Magazine, without his family and his father's literary friends knowing.

As an enthusiastic traveler, enthusiastically participating in many art fields such as Cheo, cinema, and passionate about painting, Ho Anh Thai brings readers many interesting stories about veteran artists such as Hoang Trung Thong, Anh Tho, Y Nhi... with very real stories. Readers feel lost in the space of the North, especially Hai Phong, Cat Hai island - the place that has been included in Ho Anh Thai's novels later. Quynh Doi village, Quynh Luu (Nghe An) with its green rice fields, bamboo banks and Ho family temple is also given full affection by the writer, although it was not until he was 36 years old that Ho Anh Thai had the opportunity to visit his hometown.

Read"When you grow up, you are no longer afraid",Readers will enjoy the stories Ho Anh Thai tells about his family and relatives; about acquaintances such as booksellers, people he met while evacuating from bombs; and about strangers with strong regional characteristics, such as people from Hai Phong where the writer's brother teaches and works... Readers will ponder, will smile, will laugh out loud at the many humorous details cleverly arranged by the author.