Pham Thi Hoai’s writing is unadorned but evocative. Very occasionally, this sparseness makes for an elusive narrative but mostly the author builds, sentence by sentence, stories that are taut and tense. She is often funny: ‘I told Grandma that our specialty restaurant employed a special security guard who had been to Japan to study, who in one breath could say a whole Japanese phrase, Karaoke-toshiba-ajinomoto-toyota-honda-yamaha-mitsubishi-ohayo-tokyo. Grandma said that it sounded better than merci beaucoup. She blamed the French for the corruption of Vietnamese cuisine.’

Pham Thi Hoai’s excellent novel, The Crystal Messenger, was published in 1997; further translations of her writing, which includes fiction, a children’s novella and essays, would be welcome. While Sunday Menu explores a Vietnam that is more than the sum of its recent wars, its limestone-studded islets and its rice paddies, this book is no mere cultural excursion. Pham Thi Hoai’s voice is assured, original and rarely didactic.