by Nguyen Bich Lan 

Lam Anh, my best friend, worked in the advertising department of an Internet service provider. He told me that his daily task was to speak eloquently and make his message agreeable to the ears of the company’s potential customers, to give a succinct speech promising the Internet will bring the whole world right to their room.

by Trong Bao

After the death of her mother, little Chuyen turned taciturn and became visibly depressed. Her two-year-old brother Can was the exact opposite. He cried and called out his mother’s name everyday, because he thought she had either just gone to the market or was standing behind the door playing a hide-and-seek game with him when he returned home from pre-school. Poor little thing, he did not know that after the traffic accident that day, she would never come back to him.

by Do Thi Hong Van

Trang was at the district People’s Committee headquarters waiting to have some documents notarized.

"Trang! Trang! Is that Miss Trang?" a call resounded behind her. She turned around to see a man of about fifty, with an imposing gait carrying a bundle of papers in hand, elbowing his way across the crowd.

by Nguyen Kim Chau

In the memories of my childhood, each sunset was a parting. When there was still enough sunlight in the sky to cast red light over the rows of tram bau trees in the rice fields, when the flock of ducks were being herded home to their coops, their quacking mixed with frogs’ croaks, my father was still sitting in the doorway of the house, while I walked towards the river bank and stopped in my tracks to watch my mother pushing the boat far from the shore. She turned and said:

by Pham Van Anh

1. "Luong, it’s your turn now" – said Mr Canh, the guard on duty, his voice echoing from downstairs.

Still combing her hair, Luong quickly twisted it into a bun and fumbled along the rail. Mr Canh was waiting for her right at the end of the stairs.

"Bed number 13. A man. Do it properly, you know."

by Tran Tu

Tam Moc was a young and skilled farmer. He lived near a river, but he could not swim or row a boat; this was strange because his father was an experienced fisherman and first-class sailor with a rank similar to that of a ship’s captain. The old man had finally been forced to give up his career after his right foot was bitten off by a ferocious shark as he was trying to mend a rudder in the high sea near Nghe Cape before the boat was washed ashore. Now, leading the life of an invalid, he craved his old life on the sea. Again and again, with a walking stick in hand, he leaned against Tam Moc’s shoulder and hobbled along the bank of the Ba Ren River to contemplate where all boats might be going.

by Doan Le

This shrimp season, our boat was the only one to use small nets to catch shrimp and small fishes, while other fishermen in our region used large nets to catch lobsters and salmon, even though sea creatures near the shore were getting more and more scarce.

by Ma Van Khang

In a few moments now, the roof would surely blow off! It was like a violent verbal storm was blowing through the house, Quang thought.

by Bach Le Van Nguyen 

Boi was often called "mouldy Boi" because he had psoriasis and his skin was rough with red patches. Yet he won the heart of the most beautiful girl in Dong Nam village. Even though a lot of young handsome guys had flirted Nhuy, she married Boi and loved only him, her robust and hardworking husband.

by Han Nguyen

"Hey kid, don’t be so angry!" he wrote after clicking her screen name hoabanglang in the chat room. "When I was your age, I didn’t do that, but now…," he added. He had nearly finished his advice when she signed out. Shaking his head and smiling broadly, he sent her another message, "What was that for? Just to show me how childish you are and to unintentionally ruin the pleasant moments in this virtual world? We’re only online for fun, aren’t we?" he went on.