An expansive novel that explores the complexities of love and truth.
“When you salvage others, you salvage yourself.” Wise words, but it’s hard to think about repairing anything when Tallis Reed’s whole life has just imploded. After an honest mistake at work ends in a tragedy, Tallis’s journalistic career lies in shambles, leaving her to grapple with the emotional and professional fallout. At the same time, her closest friend takes a position with the Red Cross in Vietnam but soon goes missing. No one is willing to hire a woman with a tarnished reputation so Tallis realizes there is nothing left for her in New York. It might be the best decision or worst mistake of her life, but Tallis heads off to Saigon on a mission to find her friend and save her career. Tropical weather is only the beginning of the challenges she’ll face as a young, inexperienced woman trying to solve the mystery of her friend’s disappearance and recounting the events of a country in prolonged conflict. To get to the heart of a worthwhile story, she’ll have to wade through bureaucracy, censorship, sexism, and indifference, dodging shrapnel along the way. The story she finds isn’t one everybody is ready to hear, but it’s one she can’t leave buried. Besides uncovering unsavory truths, Tallis meets some resilient women unafraid to speak out, falls in love in an unexpected place, and finds the strength to make her voice heard through all the noise.
From casseroles and concealers to kidnappings and coverups, Tallis is the unassuming hero you’ve been waiting for! A Season in Saigon is an expansive novel that explores the complexities of love and truth, while also considering themes of integrity and redemption. Writing about a time period most of us are too young to remember, Dorothy Love transports readers with her captivating storytelling and meticulously researched details. Free from heavily partisan politics, audiences will be able to enjoy the unfolding story as if they’ve just stepped off the plane alongside this intrepid journalist and are seeing the unedited version of events for themselves. The author builds tension without veering into the gory or sensational, striking a delicate balance between the effects of war and the power of resilience. Driven by a compulsion to make amends for her past, Tallis puts herself in harm’s way. More valuable than getting a career-making scoop, she learns to appreciate the power of truth but the superiority of mercy. The sweetest love story about a kindhearted doctor and a woman more courageous than she realizes, A Season in Saigon is a thoughtful tale about mending a shattered past to find peace through lingering sorrow.
