Nguyen Huy Thiep ( April 29 , 1950 - March 20 , 2021 ) was a Vietnamese writer, poet, literary critic and playwright. Considered one of the greatest literary phenomenon in post-war Vietnam, he rose to prominence during the Đổi Mới era thanks to a sharp, economical writing style that features postmodern narrative methods. Central to the works of Nguyen Huy Thiep are tensions between the rural lifestyle and the new urban middle class milieu, conventional values versus modern changes along with the portrayal of sexual and grotesque subjects, which had brought him significant controversy and praise alike from contemporary critics. The writer passed away in Hanoi, 2021, and was posthumously awarded the State's Prize for Contribution to Arts and Literature in 2022.