A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

Robert Olen Butler

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain is a hauntingly beautiful collection of interconnected stories that gives voice to those living in the shadow of war.

In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, a community of Vietnamese immigrants struggles to build new lives in America while carrying the memories, losses and hopes of the country they left behind. Through a rich tapestry of unforgettable characters Robert Olen Butler explores the profound emotional cost of displacement and the enduring search for belonging.

Written with extraordinary compassion and lyrical power, these stories illuminate the universal human experiences of love, longing, identity and redemption. Butler’s remarkable ability to inhabit the inner lives of his characters transforms history into something intimate, immediate and deeply moving.

Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 and widely regarded as a modern classic, this definitive edition includes two additional stories that complete the collection’s narrative arc, returning readers to the jungles of Vietnam and bringing this unforgettable journey full circle.

Profound, poignant and beautifully crafted, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain is an essential work of contemporary American literature and a timeless meditation on memory, exile and the resilience of the human spirit.

  • Robert Olen Butler won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for ‘A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain’
  • Author of Severance/Intercourse and the ‘Kit’ Cobb historical spy thriller series (The Hot Country, The Star of Istanbul and The Empire of Night) all published by No Exit Press
  • For fans of short story collections, and readers with an interest in the relationship between Vietnam and America and the Vietnam War
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald Award winner for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature

Paperback

RRP: £8.99

ISBN: 9781843447603

Published: July 27, 2016

Extent: 320 pages

Ebook

RRP: £4.99

ISBN: 9781843447610

Published: September 24, 2015

Reviews

‘A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain is remarkable … for how beautifully it achieves its daring project of making the Vietnamese real’

George Packer , The New York Times Book Review

‘Butler writes essentially, and in a bewitching translation of voice and sympathy, what it means to lose a country, to remember it, and to have the memory begin to grow old. He writes as if it were his loss, too’

Richard Eder , Los Angeles Times Book Review

‘The number of novels and short-story collections about the Vietnam War is now approaching five hundred. Were I to recommend a single volume that poignantly shows the magnitude and the humanity of the tragedy, it would be this one … Each story is written with compassion, extraordinary insight, and frequent humor’

John Clark Pratt , The Detroit News

‘This is one of the best, most finely tuned pieces of prose fiction that I have read in a long time’

Vince Passaro , New York Newsday

‘Butler has not entered the significant and ever-growing canon of Vietnam-related fiction (he has long been a member) he has changed its composition forever’

Guardian

Frequently Asked Questions

What is "A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain" about?

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain is a hauntingly beautiful collection of interconnected stories that gives voice to those living in the shadow of war.

In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, a community of Vietnamese immigrants struggles to build new lives in America while carrying the memories, losses and hopes of the country they left behind. Through a rich tapestry of unforgettable characters Robert Olen Butler explores the profound emotional cost of displacement and the enduring search for belonging.

Written with extraordinary compassion and lyrical power, these stories illuminate the universal human experiences of love, longing, identity and redemption. Butler's remarkable ability to inhabit the inner lives of his characters transforms history into something intimate, immediate and deeply moving.

Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 and widely regarded as a modern classic, this definitive edition includes two additional stories that complete the collection's narrative arc, returning readers to the jungles of Vietnam and bringing this unforgettable journey full circle.

Profound, poignant and beautifully crafted, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain is an essential work of contemporary American literature and a timeless meditation on memory, exile and the resilience of the human spirit.

  • Robert Olen Butler won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for 'A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain'
  • Author of Severance/Intercourse and the 'Kit' Cobb historical spy thriller series (The Hot Country, The Star of Istanbul and The Empire of Night) all published by No Exit Press
  • For fans of short story collections, and readers with an interest in the relationship between Vietnam and America and the Vietnam War
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald Award winner for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature
Who wrote "A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain"?

"A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain" was written by Robert Olen Butler.

Robert Olen Butler is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, and sixteen other novels including Hell, A Small Hotel, Perfume River, and the Christopher Marlowe Cobb series. He is also the author of six short story collections and a book on the creative process, From Where You Dream. He has twice won a National Magazine Award in Fiction and received the 2013 F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature. He teaches creative writing at Florida State University.

Who would enjoy "A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain"?
"A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain" is perfect for readers who enjoy books about modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), short stories and vietnam war fiction.
Robert Olen Butler

Robert Olen Butler

Robert Olen Butler is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, and sixteen other novels including Hell, A Small Hotel, Perfume River, and the Christopher Marlowe Cobb series. He is also the author of six short story collections and a book on the creative process, From Where You Dream. He has twice won a National Magazine Award in Fiction and received the 2013 F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature. He teaches creative writing at Florida State University.

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