Quynh Tran was born in 1989 and grew up in Jakobstad in Finnish Ostrobothnia. He now resides in Malmö where he works as a psychologist.

Tran is a graduate of the acclaimed Biskops Arnö Writing School. His literary debut Shade and Breeze was recently awarded Svenska Yle’s Literature Prize and is currently shortlisted for the prestigious Runeberg Prize, the Katapult Prize for Best Debut and Borås Tidning’s Debutant Prize.

Skugga och svalka /Shade and Breeze

This is the story of Má and Hieu.

Má dreams about wealth and grandeur, Hieu dreams about the pretty girls. Then there is also the second son, the younger brother, always in the periphery, always an observer. He gradually disappears into his schoolwork, mesmerised by his own astonishing intelligence.

The three of them form a solitary world in the small Ostrobothnian town. Má and Hieu, constantly on a collision course with each other and the community’s suffocating social codes. They live among people who want to talk openly about everything, who don’t understand the necessity of focus and shade.

Shade and Breeze is Quynh’s Tran’s evocative and poignant debut novel – a story about love, obsession and the meaning of family.

“A magic voice. Working with the coming-of-age in a smalltown narrative Quynh Tran creates a world completely of its own kind, a story of belonging and estrangement, and of the refugee experience. In a sensual, dreamy prose, still so very real, with an authority reminiscent of Ocean Vuongs On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Quynh Tran has written a first novel that shines like a precious gem.” – Monika Fagerholm, Author of THE AMERICAN GIRL and WHO KILLED BAMBI

Awards:

WINNER OF SVENSKA YLE’S LITERATURE PRIZE 2021

WINNER OF THE RUNEBERG PRIZE 2022

WINNER OF BORÅS TIDNING’S DEBUTANT PRIZE 2022

SHORTLISTED FOR THE KATAPULT PRIZE 2022

During the residency at Vitlycke-CPA:

“I will work on a novel that revolves around a 42-year-old woman named Maggie. She is employed at a Japanese/Swedish spa, where she gets to think a lot about the idea of beauty; what beauty really means, especially in relation to the idea of Japanese culture. At home she lives a life with her teenage daughter. They have a good relationship, but tensions arise when she meets a new boyfriend. What Maggie knows about him is that he is into rap music, which makes her worried and curious at the same time. She persuades her daughter to invite him home.” - Quynh Tran

Links:
Norstedts Agency