The Boat is a breathtaking & heartbreaking work of literary genius. Each of Nam Le's stories are a world so completely real & realized that they feel like a living, breathing being. His understanding of human emotions know no boundaries of age, race, country or gender & is only overshadowed by the beauty & mastery of Le's writing. For those who do not read short stories, please do not let that stop you from picking up this book; each story is a novel in itself. The intensity of character & place is so visceral & immediate that you would never know that there is not a continuous narrative from one story to the next. If that is not enough to persuade you then I will say the narrative is held together by history & tragedy, by beauty & perseverance & could be a novel is its own right. Read this book, you will thank me for it later.