Twilight Territory

by Andrew X. Pham

This novel is a work of fiction inspired by some events in the life of the author’s maternal grandmother.

Modern Vietnam comprises 54 ethnic groups, with the Viet (Khinh people) accounting for 87 percent of the population. Most usually identify themselves by the region of their birth: north, south, or central.

Their rented home was one half of a house, divided right down the middle by a bare brick wall, the living space consisting of three narrow adjoining rooms. The bedroom was in the middle between the kitchen in the rear and the shop, which faced the street.

Coi, Tuyet, and her two-year-old daughter, Anh, shared a divan in the bedroom. The only other furniture was a small dresser bought from the landlord. Coi’s twenty-two-year-old son, Ha, slept in a hammock strung in the shop.

there had been a strong Japanese presence in the town since they took over the Phan Thiet airbase from the Vichy French government.

“Monsieur Gaspard Feraud has demanded my daughter. He wants her for a mistress, to turn her into one of his playthings.” “Can you refuse the swine?” He answered with a pained smile, twisting the rag he was holding. “If I don’t deliver my daughter to him in three days, his underlings will shut down our restaurant. His police chief will arrest me on trumped-up charges. My family would be at his mercy. I can’t . . . I just can’t bear the thought of Mai-Ly in the hands of that monster.”

“There is something shady about him. Is he working for the communists, the nationalists, or those religious nuts, the Hoa Hao?” It was a chaotic time. Groups changed names and affiliations constantly, joining forces and splintering just as easily. The French, whom the Viet had accepted as invincible and nearly as untouchable as demigods, were now kowtowing, fearful of the Japanese, who behaved like the tyrannical Viet nobles. All the factions were throwing their support to one side or the other.