Overview

In 1968 two young Vietnamese sisters flee to Saigon after their village on the Mekong River is attacked by American forces and burned to the ground. The sole survivors of the brutal massacre that killed their family, the sisters struggle to survive but become estranged, separated by sharply different choices and ideologies. Mai ekes out a living as a GI bar girl, but Tam's anger festers, and she heads into jungle terrain to fight with the Viet Cong. For nearly ten years, neither sister knows if the other is alive. Do they both survive the war? And if they do, can they mend their fractured relationship? Or are the wounds from their journeys too deep to heal? In a stunning departure from her crime thrillers, Libby Fischer Hellmann delves into a universal story about survival, family, and the consequences of war.

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9781938733673

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Reviews

In this richly drawn tour de force, Libby Hellmann paints an Asian family saga over two continents. Two sisters take different paths, struggle to confront the past, themselves, and each other. Highly recommended. -Cara Black, Three Hours in Paris In a brilliant departure from her earlier work, award-winning thriller writer Libby Fischer Hellmann has crafted a stunning piece of historical fiction. A Bend in the River is the story of two Vietnamese sisters torn apart by the war that ravaged their nation. Writing from the perspective of these women whose homeland was so brutally devastated, Hellmann has turned her astute, poetic eye from the hellish battlefields to the details of the daily lives of ordinary people struggling through a long and bitter conflict. The result is a story that will force us all to look back on the Vietnam War with a different, and I believe kinder, understanding. This is an important novel that deserves a broad audience. Kudos to Hellmann for her courage in striking out in this bold, new direction. -William Kent Krueger, This Tender Land

In this richly drawn tour de force, Libby Hellmann paints an Asian family saga over two continents. Two sisters take different paths, struggle to confront the past, themselves, and each other. Highly recommended. -Cara Black, Three Hours in Paris In a brilliant departure from her earlier work, award-winning thriller writer Libby Fischer Hellmann has crafted a stunning piece of historical fiction. A Bend in the River is the story of two Vietnamese sisters torn apart by the war that ravaged their nation. Writing from the perspective of these women whose homeland was so brutally devastated, Hellmann has turned her astute, poetic eye from the hellish battlefields to the details of the daily lives of ordinary people struggling through a long and bitter conflict. The result is a story that will force us all to look back on the Vietnam War with a different, and I believe kinder, understanding. This is an important novel that deserves a broad audience. Kudos to Hellmann for her courage in striking out in this bold, new direction. -William Kent Krueger, This Tender Land

Author Information

"Libby Fischer Hellmann left a career in broadcast news in Washington, DC and moved to Chicago a long time ago, where she, naturally, began to write gritty crime fiction. Sixteen novels and twenty-five short stories later, she claims they'll take her out of the Windy City feet first. She has been nominated for many awards in the mystery and crime writing community and has even won a few. She has been a finalist twice for the Anthony and four times for Foreword Magazine's Book of the Year. She has also been nominated for the Agatha, the Shamus, the Daphne, and has won the IPPY and the Readers Choice Award multiple times. Her novels include the upcoming historical novel, A BEND IN THE RIVER, which will be released October 7, 2020. She has also written the five-volume Ellie Foreman series, which she describes as a cross between ""Desperate Housewives"" and ""24;"" the hard-boiled 5-volume Georgia Davis PI series, and four other stand-alone historical thrillers set during Revolutionary Iran, Cuba, the Sixties, and WW2. Her short stories have been published in a dozen anthologies, the Saturday Evening Post, and Ed Gorman's ""25 Criminally Good Short Stories"" collection. Her books have been translated into Spanish, German, Italian, and Chinese. All her books are available in print, ebook, and audiobook. Libby also hosts Second Sunday Books, a monthly podcast where she interviews bestselling and emerging authors. In 2006 she was the National President of Sisters in Crime, a 4000 member organization committed to the advancement of female crime fiction authors."

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