Twilight Territory by Andrew Pham

A sweeping first novel of love, war, and resistance in post–World War II Japanese-occupied Vietnam, by the award-winning author of Catfish and Mandala . The peak of the hot season, 1942: The wars in Europe and Asia and the Japanese occupation have upset the uneasy balance of French Indochina. In a small Vietnamese fishing village, Tuyet ekes out a living with her aunt, cousin, and two-year-old daughter. But when Tuyet meets Japanese major Yamazaki Takeshi, to her surprise, she comes to find a strange kinship with him. A wounded veteran with a good heart, he grows to resent the Empire for what it has taken―and the promises it has failed to keep.

As the Viet Minh begin to battle the French and Takeshi risks his life for the Resistance, Tuyet and her family are drawn into the conflict, with devastating consequences. A lushly panoramic novel, by turns gritty and profoundly moving, Twilight Territory is a war story and a love story that offers a fascinating perspective on Vietnam’s struggles to break free of its French colonial past.