Good Merican Baby: A Most Peculiar Story from the Vietnam War is an unconventional, darkly humorous tale of survival, unlikely friendships, and humanity amid the chaos of war.
Professor Quanh Van Khanh is a mild-mannered Vietnamese botanist far more comfortable studying rice and mangoes than carrying a weapon. But the Vietnam War pulls him from his family and research into a covert mission for which he is spectacularly unprepared.
Disguised as a South Vietnamese officer, Quanh enters the world of American soldiers, intelligence operations, dangerous journeys, shifting loyalties, and people whose lives challenge everything he understands about enemies and allies. Along the way, the unforgettable Businesswoman becomes his guide, protector, and companion, while a mixed-race baby unexpectedly becomes central to his extraordinary journey.
What begins as a mission involving agricultural research evolves into a deeply personal story of friendship, sacrifice, cultural collision, tragedy, and survival. Through Quanh's unusual perspective, the novel explores the absurdities and contradictions of a war in which the boundaries between friend and enemy are rarely as simple as they appear.
Years later, Quanh can look back on an outcome almost impossible to imagine: surviving the war, becoming a father to the child entrusted to him, and receiving commendations from opposing armies in the same conflict.
