Cover of Elevator in Sài Gòn by Thuận, translated by Nguyễn An Lý. THe cover has five picture arranged at angles on it, with white space between. In the centre is a sepia-toned picture of a woman covering her eyes. The others are pink tones pictures of flowers.

Elevator in Sài Gòn by Thuận, translated by Nguyễn An Lý

The daughter finds her mother’s notebook, sewn into her pillow, and begins to investigate a figure from her revolutionary past: a man named Paul Polotsky, who lived in Paris in the 1950s. Back in Paris, she manages to track him down and begins to follow him, her life narrowing on this sole focus. What, exactly, was the relationship between her mother and Polotsky?