What's next? A novel, The Beauty of Humanity Movement to be published in Canada in September 2010, and the US and the UK in spring 2011.
Set in contemporary Vietnam, this is a story about a country undergoing momentous change and how family is defined—not always by bloodlines, but by heart. Tu' is a young tour guide working in Hanoi for a company called New Dawn, but while he leads tourists through the city, including American vets on "war tours," he starts to wonder what it is they are seeing of Vietnam—and what they miss entirely. Maggie, who is Vietnamese by birth but has lived most her life in the U.S., has returned to her country of origin in search of clues to her dissident father’s disappearance during the war. Holding the story together is Old Man Hung, who has lived through decades of political upheaval and through it all found a way to feed hope to the community of pond-side dwellers among whom he lives. This is a deeply observed and skilfully wrought novel about the reverberation of conflict through generations, the enduring legacy of art, and the redemption and renewal of long-lost love.