The Truffle Eye

Author: Vaan Nguyen Translator: Adriana X. Jacobs Publisher: Zephyr Press (2021) Vaan Nguyen has been described as “a veritable juggler of Hebrew,” a poet whose work radically remixes world classics and pop culture, the personal and the political, past and present. Born in 1982 in Israel to refugees of the Vietnam War, Nguyen’s debut collection The Truffle Eye addresses questions of identity and cultural legacy from what she has described as “points of emotion and shock.” Her poems travel far and wide, between Tel Aviv and Hanoi, taking in views of Manhattan, Paris, Milan, Salzburg, Pasadena and more. Through these movements, Nguyen reflects on how our lives take shape in the daily migrations we make between lovers, family, work, and the places we call home.  When The Truffle Eye (Ein ha-kmehin), first came out in Israel in 2008 (an expanded version in 2013), Nguyen was hailed as a “phenomenon—a poet whose first book positions her at the center of Israeli poetry.” In 2005, she appeared