Launch of the autobiography 'Living until dawn' by journalist and writer Tran Mai Hanh

Speaking at the launch of the autobiography “Living to Dawn”, Mr. Pham Manh Hung, Deputy General Director of VOV shared: “Living to Dawn” is considered the last book that writer and journalist Tran Mai Hanh cherished and devoted to. If the launch of this book had taken place a little earlier, it would have been a great happiness for Mr. Tran Mai Hanh and for us. But today, with the presence of managers, prestigious journalists and a room full of the public, it showed that everyone’s feelings for Mr. Tran Mai Hanh are still intact as when he was alive. This is a happiness and honor that not everyone has.”

Launch of the novel — VOV Deputy General Director Pham Manh Hung speaks at the book launch ceremony. Photo: Le Tam

Extremely moved at the book launch ceremony of her recently deceased father, Mrs. Tran Mai Anh, the eldest daughter of writer and journalist Tran Mai Hanh, said: “This is not the last book. In the manuscript, on my father’s computer, there is another book, with the cover written “That Day Today”.

We will still meet and see each other in the future works of Mr. Hanh. One day, the family will publish and complete the unfinished work that he is doing. I sincerely thank and am grateful to everyone."

From daily diary entries kept over the past half century about what happened and what she witnessed, journalist and writer Tran Mai Hanh created the content of her autobiography “Living until dawn” with touching, authentic pages, leaving many thoughts for readers.

The autobiography was cherished and written by journalist Tran Mai Hanh for quite a long time but was not completed until early 2024. Many family events, at times he even thought it was impossible to complete, until the last images of his beloved, talented daughter on her hospital bed about her wish for the book to be completed and titled "Live until dawn" made him wake up to continue writing the final lines.

Those last lines were written by him while he had to overcome the ultimate loss of a father, the devotion to taking care of his wheelchair-bound wife who had been with him through all the ups and downs in life, and the busy work at the editorial office where he was a consultant.

Not only a slice of war, readers can find many other slices in the autobiography "Live till dawn" such as love stories with the broken first love due to social class differences, the innocent but fragile nostalgia of soldiers on the front line. Stories about the subsidy period with the difficulties in housing, food, clothing, having to work extra to survive.

Readers can cry, laugh, and regret about life in those years. It was the first years of the country's renovation, including how the renovation of the press brought information to the public. It was information about a storm but not fully and multi-dimensionally, sometimes leading to how it affected people's lives. Or when integrating, the public's need to enjoy sports was very high, which was the reason for the birth of publications about football...

The past events, the situations that happened and were related to the journalist Tran Mai Hanh's personality, which are shown in the autobiography, are not only the author's own but also the story of a time. They are "remnants" or "historical circumstances" that many people experienced at that time with all the joys, anger, love and hate. They are all the harsh and cruel challenges that life brings, seemingly to test how people handle, survive and behave.

"Living until dawn" is like a documentary film with a lot of information about a human life, about a time. Closing the last pages of the book, readers can see the portrait of the author who has gone through many challenges in life. But above all, no matter how difficult or tragic, journalist and writer Tran Mai Hanh always believes in herself, in her conscience and the good things ahead, just like the name of her autobiography "Living until dawn".

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