The Girl from Ha Giang

"The Girl from Ha Giang", set in contemporary Vietnam, is the story of an exciting journey into the mysterious culture of modern day Vietnam. Marshall McLean, a former American journalist, lands a job at the English-language newspaper in HaNoi. On an excursion to exotic HaLong Bay, he meets and is captivated by the mysterious Tao, a young Vietnamese woman who seems to know her way around the expatriate community in HaNoi and more. McLean meets a cast of other characters and becomes embroiled in a tightening web of intrigue and murder and even confronts aspects of the current Israeli/Palestine presence in the Far East. The tale paints an authentic picture of what Vietnam is like 40 years after "the War" ended. As Graham Greene presented Vietnam in "The Quiet American" in the 1950s in a very unstable time, this novel, a serious page-turner, captures the spirit, ambience and continued mystery of a distinctive nation in today's more stable time of freedom from foreign interference and control.