Publisher's Synopsis
A wrongful arrest by the Vietnamese Security Service sets the background for this remarkable story. As exciting as it is revealing, the book examines some of literature's major themes: moral ambiguity, the nature of evil, the bittersweet dividends of power, and the grace of love.
-J.Lempriere
Intelligent and carefully crafted, It Happened in Hanoi is a story of love and duplicity, set against a background of State sponsored criminality. A rare combination of depth and breath, this probing book stirs both the heart and mind on many levels.
-O.M.
It Happen in Hanoi is both an insightful commentary on the dangers of State administration disengaged from the restraints imposed by normal governmental practice, and a gripping story of a man's search for meaning in a world threatened by organized violence and terrorism. It is a book which everyone ought to read.
-Falkiner
The above comments give a broad summary of It Happened in Hanoi. More specifically, the book is set against the political landscape of the CPV and the ideology that informs it. Although It Happened in Hanoi highlights aspects of the Vietnam's long and costly war against French colonialism and the United States, the book is not a chronicle of the war or a polemic against Vietnam's communist government. It Happened in Hanoi is a novel about one man's search for happiness and the victory of love over prejudice and oppression.
