Sunday Menu is a collection of poignant and evocative short stories from Pham Thi Hoai, widely regarded as a leading avant-garde Vietnamese writer. These stories about the relationships, dreams and disappointments of an eclectic collection of contemporary Vietnamese people demonstrate Hoai's keen eye for detail, acerbic wit and fine ear for the rhythms of the language of the street. These are works of simple beauty, described with grace and precision, images crafted with casual brilliance and endearing perversity. Pham Thi Hoai, one of contemporary Vietnam's most influential writers, was born in Hai Duong province in 1960. Her first novel, Thien Su (The Crystal Messenger), first published in Hanoi in 1988, has since been translated into ten languages, and was awarded the Frankfurt LiBeraturpreis in 1993; Ton That Quynh Du's English translation of The Crystal Messenger won the Victorian Premiers' Literary Award in 2000. Pham Thi Hoai has also written two other novels and three collections of short stories, and has translated works by Kafka, Brecht and Durrenmatt into Vietnamese. Book jacket.