Juxtaposed with tranquility and geniality are abandoned landscapes and defoliated forests. Polluted rivers and streams, the war-torn sky, pungent air filled with the stench of decomposing human corpses, and the deafening roar of helicopters and bombers hovering in the gloom dominate the settings of Bảo Ninh's stories.

Intertwined with these horrific images are human tears shed during farewell ceremonies, when recruits are separated from their loved ones, when parents live in anxiety and hope while their children are fighting in remote regions, and when soldiers bury their comrades and burden themselves with the fallen's unfulfilled wishes. Hà Nội at Midnight delineates the complex outpourings of war and the way it remakes human relationships.

“In this 2023 collection, the twelve stories Bao Ninh selects (most newly published in English with two stories re-translated at his request) evoke both deep sorrow and timeless longing. [The] graceful translation brings alive these universal stories that probe the deep sorrow of war and its aftermath, even as they touch our hearts with longing and hope. Ha Noi at Midnight is a collection of powerful stories that seeks to take a stand against war by writing about peace—about reconciliation and the human journey toward redemption. Read [this book]. In the face of unending sorrow, these stories retain the power to work miracles.” —Thomas G. Bowie Jr., War, Literature & the Arts: An International Journal of the Humanities 35 (2023)

Bảo Ninh, Vietnam's most internationally renowned writer, is known primarily for his novel The Sorrow of War (1994), which has been translated into several languages and published in more than twenty countries, winning numerous international awards.

Quan Manh Ha is professor of American Literature at the University of Montana. His research interests include multiethnic US literatures, Vietnam War literature, and literary translation. He is the translator of Other Moons: Vietnamese Stories of the American War and Its Aftermath and Luminous Nights: Pioneering Vietnamese Short Stories.

Cab Tran was born in Vietnam and emigrated to the United States with his parents during the diaspora. He holds an MFA from the University of Michigan Helen Zell Writers' Program. His fiction has appeared in Vagabond: Bulgaria's English Monthly and elsewhere. He lives in Portland, Oregon.