The Boat (2008)

by Nam Le

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
1,003	37	19,493	(3.72)	99
Stories that take us from the slums of Colombia to the streets of Tehran; from New York City to Iowa; from a tiny fishing village in Australia to a foundering vessel in the South China Sea-- while taking us to the heart of what is means to be human.

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Infinity and the South China Sea (Fourteen Stories) by Thomas De Angelo (Karcy65)
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Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam by Andrew X. Pham (Stbalbach)

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▾Member reviews

English (34) French (1) Swedish (1) All languages (36)

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Showing 1-5 of 34 (next | show all)

Interesting short stories. (

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vdt_melbourne | Sep 12, 2023 |

Brilliant first book from a young Australian writer. Read it. (

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jean-sol | Mar 2, 2023 |

whilst there were stories in here i really, really loved, there were also stories i couldn't even get through. alas. (

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kickthebeat | Nov 1, 2020 |

I am kicking off Asian Readathon 2020 with this. The story is about an immigrant who escapes the Vietnam War by going on a boat and I'll leave it at that. This review is for the animated book that is online. It is based on the short story "The Boat." The format for this book was amazing! I highly recommend putting on some headphones, clicking on full-screen and auto-scroll, and just enjoying the format this story is told in. It is so immersive and adds a tone to the story that I don't know would have been there if I'd just read it in a print book. I did go into this story not knowing anything about it though, so that may have helped with enjoying the story. I would definitely recommend though if only for its originality. (

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jonathanpapz | Jul 2, 2020 |

Read 2015. (

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sasameyuki | May 7, 2020 |

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▾Other authors

» Add other authors (4 possible)

Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Nam Le	—	primary author	all editions	calculated
Camus-Pichon, France	Traduction	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Publisher Series

Albin Michel, Les grandes traductions

▾Awards and Honors

Awards

5 Under 35 Award (2008)

Anisfield-Wolf Book Award (Fiction – 2009)

Australian Book Industry Awards (Winner – Newcomer of the Year – 2009)

Australian Book Industry Awards (Shortlist – Book of the Year – 2009)

Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Shortlist – South East Asia and Pacific, Best First Book – 2009)

Dayton Literary Peace Prize (Longlist – Fiction – 2009)

Dylan Thomas Prize (Winner – 2008)

Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award (Longlist – 2008)

Kathleen Mitchell Award (2010)

Melbourne Prize for Literature (Winner – 2009)

New South Wales Premier's Literary Award (Winner – UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing – 2009)

Prime Minister's Literary Award (Winner – fiction category – 2009)

Prime Minister's Literary Award (Shortlist – Fiction – 2009)

Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year (Fiction – 2008)

Queensland Premier's Literary Award (Winner – Australian Short Story – 2009)

Victorian Premier's Literary Award (Shortlist – Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction – 2009)

Western Australian Premier's Book Awards (Shortlist – Fiction – 2008)

Distinctions

New York Times Notable Book of the Year (Fiction & Poetry – 2008)

Notable Lists

100 Must-Read Australian Books (Fiction)

The Big Jubilee Read (2002-2011)

The Most Important Books of the Last Twenty Years

Oregonian Top Ten Book (2008)

Reading the world in 196 books (Australia)

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▾Common Knowledge

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Canonical title

The Boat

Original title

The boat

Alternative titles

Original publication date

2008

People/Characters

Important places

Hiroshima, Japan

Vietnam

Australia

Important events

Related movies

Awards and honors

Dylan Thomas Prize (2008)

New York Times Notable Book of the Year (Fiction & Poetry, 2008)

Australian Prime Minister's Literary Award (fiction category, 2009)

Australian Book Industry Awards (Newcomer of the Year, 2009)

Oregonian Top Ten Book (2008)

(show all 18 items)

Epigraph

Importunate along the dark

Horizon of immediacies

The flares of desperation rise.

~ W.H. Auden

How strange that when the summons

came I always felt good.

~ Frank Conroy

Dedication

To --
Ta Thi Xuan Le, my mother
Le Huu Phuc, my father
and Truong and Victor, my brothers

First words

My father arrived on a rainy morning.

Quotations

Last words

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Diaz, Junot

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

▾Book descriptions

Stories that take us from the slums of Colombia to the streets of Tehran; from New York City to Iowa; from a tiny fishing village in Australia to a foundering vessel in the South China Sea-- while taking us to the heart of what is means to be human.

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Book description

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