By Kien Nguyen
Little, Brown and Company
Hardcover

Francois Gervaise, a talented but starving young artist in 18th Century France, warms himself at the same outdoor fire as common peasants. A dark past haunts him as he longs to flee his country.

Handsome Gervaise positions himself to do so with the help of staunch Jesuit Bishop Pierre de Behaine, a man recruiting missionaries to aid him in taking Christianity to the uncivilized

Le Colonial Excerpt Everywhere he looked, Francois saw short dark figures dressed in rags. They all looked alike to him. Their exposed thighs and backs were decorated with blue tattoos of unrecognizable shapes. The women wore black or brown skirts that reached a little below the knees. A triangular piece of cloth was worn over the bosom. Their jet-black hair was smooth, slick and glossy. They ornamented their necks and arms with copper or silver bands. Men and children ran about in a state of near nakedness. No one wore shoes. Their feet appeared flat and broad, the color of terra-cotta. ©2004 Kien Nguyen Published with permission from Little, Brown & Co.

shores of Annam, later called Vietnam. Gervaise befriends, poor yet hotheaded, teenager Henry Monange who signs on as the artist’s assistant.

After a long journey, the three Frenchmen find themselves in the midst of real-life Asian history, as a civil war erupts between northern and southern Annam. The two younger men are eventually sentenced to death by rebel peasants due to unpaid taxes.

Gervaise steps forward to save the day and renounces Christianity for Buddhism. Behaine, who loathes Buddism and is committed to France's religious and political agenda, clashes with Gervaise.

In the midst of all the tension, young Henry falls in love with a servant girl named Xuan who has been selected as French-supported Prince Anh’s concubine. Conflicts abound from issues of love to issues of territory and brewing politics.

Bookworm's Briefing
Kien Nguyen’s second novel allows the reader to consider the importance of similar conflict that takes place in the 1960s and 1970s in Vietnam. It takes an unflattering look at the way Christianity was introduced to places considered ignorant and uncivilized by early missionaries.

This book also provides the unschooled American a lesson or two about Asian history. Nguyen, who is the son of an American father and a Vietnamese mother, came to the United States in 1985. His first novel, The Tapestries, was inspired by his grandfather.

Nguyen’s journey is chronicled in a memoir called The Unwanted. He is a talented writer whose words are worth reading.