Author:Elsie Burch Donald
In early 1970 a small plane, en route to Angkor Wat, mysteriously disappears over the Cambodian jungle. Piloted by an American hippie, the passengers are Bill Bolton, a US businessman, his wife Marjorie, their guide a young Englishwoman, and a Cambodian 'old hand', a Frenchman.
Stranded helplessly in the jungle, the westerners are found by local peasants, and taken to the relative safety of their own veritable Shangri La. Here, cut off from the outside world, they find an enchanting Buddhist world, full of laughter and festivals; a gentle, sensitive people without greed, violence, or too much work.
As the party adjust to the lotus-eating culture, life presents excitement,pleasure - even love. And an opportunity to bring modern methods to a backward way of life. But a darker, brutal presence threatens to destroy their paradise. The Vietnam war is spilling across Cambodia's borders, and an insurgency is on the rise that will become the Khmer Rouge. Cambodia must change, but in whose image?
Gripping and beautifully written, A Model American is a multi-dimensional parable showing the American character abroad and its effects when used to 'improve' an ancient, alien culture. For many, it will greatly resonate with what is happening in the world today.
The shell of the novel is an adventure story, but its kernel is an exploration of the national attitudes and personal qualities that shape people's responses to world affairs.
—— Times Literary SupplementA parable of modern-day American interventionism, this story literally pitches its protagonists into the fray.
—— The Glasgow HeraldMuch more than a mere jungle survival story . . . as page-turning adventure fiction, A MODEL AMERICAN scores highly. As a warning against the perils of continued globalisation, it deserves to be well read.
—— Cambridge Evening NewsOh my god, Legend of a Suicide just bowled me over completely. It is such a tender, heartbreaking, breathtaking, horrifying and insanely compelling read that when I finished it I went straight back to the beginning and round again. I implore anyone with functioning eyes to read this book
—— Florence Welch of Florence and the MachineSo hard to put down that I am thinking of suing David Vann for several hours of lost sleep
—— Lionel ShriverThis book squeezes more life out of the first hundred pages than most books could manage in a thousand, which is pretty impressive, considering it's a book about death
—— Ross Raisin, author of God's Own CountryIn his portrayal of a young son's love for his lost father David Vann has created a stunning work of fiction: surprising, beautiful and intensely moving
—— Nadeem Aslam, author of Maps for Lost LoversOne of the most gripping debuts I've ever read
—— Philip Hoare, author of LeviathanImpossible to put down and equally impossible to forget
—— San Francisco ChronicleAn American classic ... harrowing but beautifully wrought ... prose as clear and bracing as a mountain stream
—— Sunday TimesOne jaw-droppingly powerful, courageous and original fiction debut...As a 10th work of fiction this would be impressive; as a debut, it is remarkable
—— Sunday TelegraphHands down the best fictional debut we have read this year
—— Dazed & ConfusedFor the imagery alone and for the sentences, the book would be a treasure, but the story it tells - the story of the suicide of the author's father - has an immediacy and sharpness made all the more special by the tone of distance in the narrative and the beauty of the writing
—— Colm Toibin, Observer books of the yearDavid Vann's Legend of a Suicide is brave, fantastically well written, and completely defies categorisation
—— Julie Myerson, Daily Telegraph books of the yearFrom the shores of Vann's Alaska one can see the Russia of Turgenev's Fathers and Sons ... 'A father, after all,' Vann writes, 'is a lot for a thing to be.' A son is also a lot for a thing to be; so is an artist. With Legend of a Suicide David Vann proves himself a fine example of both
—— New York Times...a gripping fantasy thriller that will please all the older Harry Potter fans out there
—— Yours MagazineJonathan Littell veers between brilliance and bathos...
—— Sally Cousins , The TelegraphGrotesque, dismaying, chilling in its focus on the fine detail of barbarism, this epic of evil is also addictively readable
—— Boyd Tonkin , Independent on SundayCompelling... utterly engaging... for anyone whose interest in his subjects is great to enough to bear their unflinching portrayal The Kindly Ones is an essential novel
—— Chris Power , The TimesIt's an amazing picture of evil, wonderfully written (and very well translated from the original French by Charlotte Mandell), and left me feeling as though I had supped with the damned
—— Jane Knight , The Times
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