Fire, Teeth, Water, Tongue is a personal book of memories. Through episodic glimpses and scenes from her own life, Nhu Diep writes about her own complicated family story.

Around 10,000 Vietnamese refugees arrived in Norway between 1975 and 1990. Among these were Ba and Má – meaning mother and father in Vietnamese – and their eleven children. The family was picked up by a Norwegian tank ship in 1978 and later put on a plane to Oslo. Little N was 8 months old at the time.

In a yellow house the eleven siblings grow up. They get rôi (a beating) day and night. Brutal violence, a strict family hierarchy, and high demands and expectations marks N and her siblings’s childhoods, so they all carry with them many wounds into their adult lives.

As a young adult N chooses to move away from her family. She needs to find out who she is, what she’s capable of and what she wants, and what role her family will occupy in her life. But eventually a wish to belong appears, bit by bit. She starts calling home, speaks Vietnamese instead of Norwegian. She gradually finds her way home, back to her own kin.

Then the unthinkable happens. A death occurs in the family, suddenly and brutally. N returns home. When life is at its hardest, they are there, with their black manes, ready to welcome her. Now, her family must find a way to move forward - together.

Fire, Teeth, Water, Tongue is a mature and good debut novel, about finding a place in a very special family, and finidng one's own path in life.

NRK

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