Absolution

11.98

1963. Saigon. Tricia is a shy newlywed, married to a rising attorney working for US Navy intelligence. Charlene is a practiced corporate spouse and mother of three, a beauty and a bully. The two women form a wary alliance as they struggle to balance the pressure to be respectable wives for their ambitious husbands, with their own dubious impulses to ‘do good’ for the people of Vietnam. Sixty years later, Charlene’s daughter, spurred by an encounter with an aging Vietnam veteran, reaches out to Tricia. Together, they look back at their time in Saigon, discovering how their lives as women on the periphery – of politics, of history, of war, of their husbands’ convictions – have been shaped and burdened by the unintended consequences of America’s tragic interference in Southeast Asia.

In stock

 

Check the box below to add a card to the basket. Please use ‘Notes’ to indicate occasion and your message

Do you feel this product is perfect for a friend or a loved one? You can buy a gift card for this item! Gift this product
SKU: 9781526673619 Category: Tag:

Ships in 24h

Across Ireland

Click & Collect

Free in Wicklow

Easy returns

Within 30 days

Secure checkout

Stripe protected

* THE TOP 10 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER *

'One of the finest contemporary novels I've read ... A moral masterpiece' ANN PATCHETT

'Her writing has a luminous kind of clarity, a grace and scope that fills me with wonder' RACHEL JOYCE

'Damning and dazzling ... The story of a Vietnam we never got in history class' OPRAH DAILY

-----------------

You have no idea what it was like. For us. The women, I mean. The wives.

1963. Saigon. Tricia is a shy newlywed, married to a rising attorney working for US Navy intelligence. Charlene is a practiced corporate spouse and mother of three, a beauty and a bully. The two women form a wary alliance as they struggle to balance the pressure to be respectable wives for their ambitious husbands, with their own dubious impulses to "do good" for the people of Vietnam.

Sixty years later, Charlene's daughter, spurred by an encounter with an aging Vietnam veteran, reaches out to Tricia. Together, they look back at their time in Saigon, discovering how their lives as women on the periphery - of politics, of history, of war, of their husbands' convictions - have been shaped and burdened by the unintended consequences of America's tragic interference in Southeast Asia.

Exploring the disaster of the Vietnam War through the lives built by American wives in 1960s Saigon, this is a virtuosic novel about folly and grace, obligation, sacrifice and the quest for absolution in a broken world.

Additional information

Weight262 g
Dimensions19.8 × 12.9 × 2.4 cm
Book_author

McDermott, Alice

Publisher

Bloomsbury

Imprint

Bloomsbury

Cover

Paperback

Pages

368

Language

English

Edition

1st paperback ed

Dewey

813.6 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K

You may also like…

  • Tom Lake

    11.98
    Add to basket
  • Dutch House: Longlisted for the Women’s Prize 2020

    13.18
    Add to basket
  • My Name Is Lucy Barton

    11.98
    Add to basket