Dinh and Tho are the two sons of a respectable Saigon family. But when the Vietnam War breaks out after the French withdraw in 1954, they go in opposite directions: Dinh becomes a Vietcong Communist guerilla fighter, while his brother takes the other side. The family is torn apart by political divisions, the struggle for survival and by nature’s overwhelming presence. In fact, Partition silencieuse is also a tale about tropical rains, the jungle and growing tea and chili pepper.
After his studies in Paris, Dinh returns to his homeland with Iris, a Frenchwoman. Their union produces Xa, the indomitable but discreet heroine of the second half of the book, who we follow as she is first torn from, then reunited with, her roots.
A mysterious poetry fills this moving narrative, which is an ode to family and to a country profoundly wounded by a fratricidal war that scarred an entire population.