Joseph Sherman first visits Saigon, the capital of French colonial Cochin-China, in 1925 on a hunting expedition with his father, a US senator. He is lured back again and again as a traveler, a soldier, and then as a reporter by his fascination for the exotic land and for Lan, a mandarin's daughter he cannot forget. Over five decades Joseph's life becomes enmeshed with the political intrigues of two of Saigon's most influential families, the French colonist Devrauxs, and the native Trans-and inevitably with Vietnam's turbulent, war torn fate. He is there when the hatred of a million coolies rises against the French, and when the French Foreign Legion fights it's bloody last stand at Dien Bien Phu.
"This superb novel could well be the War and Peace of our age. By using a technique of historical progression, author Anthony Grey does for the Vietnam wars what Leo Tolstoy did for the Napoleonic wars."
The Kansas City Star
"Like James Michener and James Clavell, Mr. Grey is a master storyteller. Unlike them, however, he has something pertinent to say and does so in distinguished fashion . . . Saigon is a novel of terrible importance."
