Saigon Calling

Marcelino Truong's first book aboutthe 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 theseason's best graphic novels" by the NewYork Times. In this sequel, young Marco and his family move from Saigon toLondon in order to escape the war following the assassination of SouthVietnamese President Diem, for whom Marcelino's diplomat father was a personalinterpreter.

InLondon, 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 hissiblings, swinging London is an exciting place to be: a new world of hedonistsand hippies. At the same time, the news from their grandparents in Vietnamgrows ever grimmer as the war intensifies and American involvement becomesincreasingly muddied. Young Marco finds himself conflicted between embracingthe peace-loving anti-war demonstrators and the strong, nostalgic bond he feelstoward a wounded Vietnam, whose conflict is not as simple as the demonstratorsmake it out to be.

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