The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

I went into Barnes and Noble to buy a guide book for a long weekend in Toronto, and this book caught my eye.  This year I've gotten to read several books that were nearly perfectly constructed/composed and this is another one.

The story takes place during the Vietnam War.  It's about a female photographer who falls in love with another American photographer, and it's also about her relationship with that photographer's Vietnamese assistant.  Through telling what is ostensibly a love story, Soli also paints a vivid picture of the war.  The book covers several years' worth of time, as well as ranging from locations in Saigon to remote villages in the countryside.  On numerous occasions the photographers are embedded with army squads and there are detailed accounts of their activities. 

I really liked so many things about this book.  The characters were really well-developed and I was rooting for them throughout the book.  The description of Vietnam was a great education for someone like me, just slightly too young to understand the impact on the US firsthand.  And the plot was incredibly engrossing.  Nancy Pearl from NPR said of this book, "“Devastatingly awesome…It's one of those books that I didn't want to put down — I resented everything else that I needed to do in my life, because I didn't want to stop reading it.”  I definitely had the same experience.