After more than two decades of bringing international business books to Vietnamese readers, Alpha Books founder Nguyen Canh Binh is looking to take his country’s entrepreneurial stories abroad. The English edition of his memoir, Born in 1972 – Lust for Life of the Contrarian, released on Amazon in 2026, marks an initial step in a wider plan to introduce works by Vietnamese entrepreneurs and businesses to international audiences, according to ZNews. The memoir, which received Vietnam’s National Book Award in 2024, traces Binh’s life and the establishment and growth of Alpha Books.
The ambition builds on a specialist publishing venture launched by Binh and seven friends in 2004, before Alpha Books was formally established in 2005. In a market then favouring entertainment and popular titles, the company focused on economics, management and leadership. Binh maintained that direction despite parting ways with his partners in 2007 and facing financial and staffing difficulties. Today, Alpha Books has a catalogue exceeding 4,000 titles, with more than 15 million copies printed, and acquires rights to and publishes between 100 and 200 new titles each year.
Translation rights acquisitions, particularly from US and UK publishers, have been central to building a list that includes Blue Ocean Strategy, Thinking, Fast and Slow and The Black Swan. Alongside that programme, Alpha Books has pursued works documenting Vietnamese business experience and thinking. The ambition to bring these books to overseas readers adds a new dimension to its publishing strategy, combining the translation of international knowledge with the development of local writing for a potentially wider market.
