In 1979, Nam Le’s family left Vietnam for Australia, an experience that inspires the first and last stories in The Boat. In between, however, Le’s imagination lays claim to the world. The Boat takes us from a tourist in Tehran to a teenage hit man in Colombia; from an ageing New York artist to a boy coming of age in a small Victorian fishing town; from the city of Hiroshima just before the bomb is dropped to the haunting waste of the South China Sea in the wake of another war. Each story uncovers a raw human truth. Each story is absorbing and fully realised as a novel. Together, they make up a collection of astonishing diversity and achievement. Prizes: Winner of NSW Premier’s Literary Awards: UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing 2009 and NSW Premier’s Literary Award Book of the Year 2009. Shortlisted for Nielsen BookData/ABA Book of the Year Award - Booksellers’ Choice 2009.