Vulture included The Italy Letters in their Summer Reading List
Chicago Review of Books | Dan Kubis reviewed The Italy Letters
The Week in Italy | Jamie Mackay reviewed The Italy Letters Substack
Bomb Magazine | Nora Treatbaby reviewed The Italy Letters
Full Stop | Anna Zumbahlen reviewed The Italy Letters
Reading Glasses named The Italy Letters as a most anticipated book of August
Our Culture Mag included The Italy Letters in their roundup of “12 Books We Are Excited To Read In August”, calling the book “beautiful and surprising”
Write or Die Magazine |Kim Darby | 24 Books We Can't Wait to Read August 2024
The Lesbrary published a full review, read it here! | Anna N.
New York Magazine's culture section included The Italy Letters
Publishers Weekly | The Italy Letters
The Millions | Most Anticipated: The Great Summer 2024 Preview
MELVILLE HOUSE 8.13.24
A surreal, dream-like account of an achingly sensual love affair from a queer Vietnamese American novelist and cult favorite
The Italy Letters is a slim, powerful shot of literary fantasia from one of America’s best-kept secrets. Long a cult favorite, visionary writer Vi Khi Nao weaves an unforgettable and highly distinctive story of a love affair suffused with longing, erotic passion, and heartbreak – all while painting a picture of the scabby underside of Las Vegas.
This beautiful and mesmerizing novel by a queer Vietnamese American writer is a brilliant and unclassifiable work of fiction that takes the form of a series of letters written by the unnamed narrator to her lover in Italy … part of a stream-of-consciousness narrative that is by turns poignant, bawdy, funny, and disturbing – and often beautifully poetic.
The story touches, obliquely but powerfully, on the immigrant experience, LGBTQIA identity, social class in the academy, writing, betrayal, sex, and homesickness. The narrator is in the process of caring for her declining mother, who is both deteriorating in health but remains imperious – not perhaps an uncommon dynamic, and one that is sketched with great compassion, humor, and yes, exasperation. The result is an authentically distinctive piece of writing from an underrated American writer on the cusp.