The novel "Paradise of the Blind " by Duong Thu Huong is a story about the relationship of three Vietnamese women and their struggle against the authoritarian Communist government. It unravels to us how the characters change with the passage of time and the lessons, moral, gifts they discover as they strive towards achieving their own "paradise."

Hang is a young girl growing into womanhood in the Hanoi slums, who learns about her past and existence in Vietnam through stories about her family, spanning over about 3 decades of history. We learn about Hang through a first person account, where she is reminiscing the incidents of the past witnessed by herself as well as those that have been narrated to her. This narration, in turn provides us with a background to analyze Hang, the central and key character of the book.

The opening of the novel gives...