Highways to a War - Softcover

Koch, Christopher J

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140247572 ISBN 13: 9780140247572

Publisher: Penguin, 1996

Synopsis

"A gripping tale . . . A convincing, page-turning evocation of recent history."--The New York Times

Ray Barton travels to war-ravaged Southeast Asia to search for his missing friend Michael Langford, a brilliant, risk-taking combat photographer who was stolen into Khmer Rouge Cambodia on a mysterious mission and disappeared. The search illuminates Langford's heroism, his fierce loyalties, and the personal highways he has traveled to war. Langford's empathy for the brave but poorly commanded Cambodian troops and his love for a young Cambodian woman have led him in the end to put down the camera and take up the gun in a foreign struggle he had made his own.

Koch richly evokes Indochina--from the deceptively tranquil rice paddies of South Vietnam to the corrupt, doomed pink-and-white city of Phnom Penh. Highways to a War is a story of intense relationships forged in a dangerous and hallucinatory land that continues to haunt the American soul.

"An absorbing, deeply moving . . . tale of love and heroism. . . . The evocation of the Cambodian landscape . . . is truly haunting."--Kirkus Reviews

"Highways to a War ranks among the best of the . . . literature that has come out of the agony of the wars in Southeast Asia."--The Orlando Sentinel

About this title

Review:

"A subtle unfolding of character and history camouflaged in battle-dress-an absorbing portrait of lives lived at the edges of terror and beauty. Koch is a powerful writer and this is a fine book" (Erica Wagner The Times)

"A gripping tale, a convincing, page turning evocation of recent history, full of compelling characters, tumultuous events and just plain excitement" (Richard Bernstein New York Times)

"Magnificent-in its humanity and honesty, and the maturity of its storytelling, it belongs with the finest products of that sad and wasteful history" (Michael Hulse Spectator)

Book Description:

'A quite outstanding novel about the Indochina war, the best I have read since Graham Greene's The Quiet American' Richard West, Literary Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0140247572
• ISBN 13: 9780140247572
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 496