Saigon Calling

Description:


Marcelino Truong's first book about
the early years of the Vietnam war, the graphic memoir Such a Lovely Little War (2016), received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews, and was named "one the
season's best graphic novels" by the New
York Times. In this sequel, young Marco and his family move from Saigon to
London in order to escape the war following the assassination of South
Vietnamese President Diem, for whom Marcelino's diplomat father was a personal
interpreter.



In
London, his father struggles to build a new life for his children and his wife,
whose bipolar spells are becoming increasingly violent. But for Marco and his
siblings, swinging London is an exciting place to be: a new world of hedonists
and hippies. At the same time, the news from their grandparents in Vietnam
grows ever grimmer as the war intensifies and American involvement becomes
increasingly muddied. Young Marco finds himself conflicted between embracing
the peace-loving anti-war demonstrators and the strong, nostalgic bond he feels
toward a wounded Vietnam, whose conflict is not as simple as the demonstrators
make it out to be.



With
its audacious imagery and heart-rending text, Saigon Calling is a bold graphic memoir that strikes a remarkable
balance between the intimate chronicle of a family undone by mental illness and
the large-scale tragedy of a country undone by war.