The War Orphan

Deeply-felt and complicated War Orphan has two voices, Simon and Ha - a severely traumatised Vietnamese boy adopted by Simon's parents who want to give him a new life. The demands of caring for him traumatise the family. Ha is incontinent, inarticulate, unable to feed himself, sometimes violent. But he also carries the story of his past life which Simon knows must not be denied. Somehow, Simon intuits and realises for us the story Ha cannot tell. It's a story we must hear. The book is 'based on true events, though they did not necessarily happen to one person'. It's a very moving book, not just through Ha's story but in Simon's relationship with hi. I felt Anderson used a bit too much material; Simon is extraordinary and needs to be for the story to happen but perhaps his mother's past belongs to another story. We are referred to two non-fiction books about resettlement and relief work in Vietnam; I went to another - Voices from the Plains of Jars by survivors of the secret US saturation bombing of Laos, some of them children. Sadly, out of print, but readers should have this kind of material alongside the novel.