Written by Ann Bennett
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Today I welcome indie author Ann Bennett to my blog. Ann wites historical fiction, inspired by researching her father's experience as a prisoner of war.
Ann's latest novel, Mandarin Road, is on a blog tour with Rachel's Random Resources and I have a guest post about the research she undertook into the Vietnam War to share with you.
Accompanying this tour, there is a giveaway to win a paperback copy of The Bookseller of Kathmandu (Open to UK & Europe Only)
The blurb:
Mandarin RoadA gripping, emotional saga of family secrets and the power of love, set during the Vietnam War…
North Carolina, 2015: Nicole has always idolised her successful father, Ed. But on his deathbed, he reveals a devastating secret he’d guarded for a lifetime. He served in the Vietnam War, fell in love, and fathered a child there. A child he never had the courage to acknowledge.
Huế, South Vietnam, 1968: While her village is rocked by the explosions of the Tet offensive, seventeen-year-old Mai finds a wounded American hiding in her family’s chicken shed. Mai faces an agonising choice. Will she report the soldier to the Viet Cong, who have a stranglehold on the village, or will she risk her life and that of her family to help him?
In 2015, Nicole embarks on a journey into the unknown, travelling to Vietnam on a quest to uncover her father’s long-buried truths. Helped by Greig, an ageing Vietnam vet and his journalist son, Long, she delves into the shocking world her father wanted to forget, plumbing depths of resilience and courage she never knew she possessed.
Will Nicole find her long-lost sister, or will the Vietnam War guard its shameful secrets for ever?
If you are a fan of page-turning, emotional historical fiction like The Women, The Home Front and The Mountains Sing, you will love Mandarin Road.
Mandarin Road is a dual-timeline, standalone book by bestselling historical fiction author, Ann Bennett. Discover this moving, compelling read today.
Mandarin Road will be at the bargain price
of 99p/c on 8th July for one day only!
Mandarin Road Inspirations
While researching the history of the Vietnam war for my book, Mandarin Road, I stumbled across many heartbreaking stories of the Amerasian children left behind when the Americans withdrew their troops in 1973. These children were the result of relationships between US servicemen and Vietnamese women during the years of what the Vietnamese call the “American War”.
Often from birth or even before they were born, these children were discriminated against and rejected by Vietnamese communities for being “blood of the enemy”, for having the features or colouring of their American servicemen fathers. They were called “bui doi” (dust of life) – originally a Vietnamese term used for beggars, street dwellers and drifters.
I read about children who were abandoned by their mothers, thrown out of their homes, abused and injured by neighbours and families and forced to live on the streets of cities like Saigon, begging for whatever food they could get.
One particularly tragic story I read in a 2009 article published in the Smithsonian Magazine by David Lamb, of a boy called Minh, living on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, his legs crippled by polio, thrown out of home by his mother at the age of 10. He was kept alive by a friend who would bring him food in an alleyway where they cuddled up together to sleep.
Some of these children managed to emigrate to America, after the Amerasian Homecoming Act was passed in 1987 and today there are thriving communities of Amerasians across the States. In fact, Minh himself was eventually brought to the US by an American congressman, fostered by a loving family, but because of the trauma he’d suffered, like many of those children had a hard time settling down in his new home.
Many Amerasian children were taken to special “orphanages” in Saigon by their mothers, or simply dumped beside the road or in the rubbish. When I read this, I could only imagine the trauma of a young mother, forced by fear, poverty and desperation to abandon her helpless baby in this way. There must have been many though, who simply couldn’t bring themselves to do that, and would have done anything, including risking their own safety, to raise such a child themselves against all the odds.
Once I’d started to read about the plight of these children, I wanted to write about them. I knew very little about them before, despite having visited Vietnam on several occasions. So, in Mandarin Road, I introduce Mai, a 17-year-old girl living in a farming village just outside Hue in Southern Vietnam at the start of the Tet offensive in January 1968. Hue Citadel, a few fields away, is rocked by the explosions of the battle, and Mai’s village is occupied by Viet Cong guerillas who are using it a base for soldiers and ammunition. One day, when feeding the chickens, Mai discovers a wounded American Marine, hiding amongst the sheaves of straw.
Years later, on his deathbed, that Marine, Ed Grainger, reveals to his American daughter, Nicole, that he served in Vietnam and fathered a child there: a girl, Kim, he’s never had the courage to acknowledge. Nicole makes her father a promise to track her sister down. On her quest to find her half-sister, she discovers the shameful truth about Amerasian children and how they were abandoned and rejected by both communities.
Without giving spoilers, I should say that I wanted the book to end on a note of optimism and hope, to reflect the fact that so much has now been done by so many to redress the balance and to change the lives of Amerasians in America and in other countries across the world.
Mandarin Road is available now to download for Kindle and Kindle Unlimited. Please visit my Amazon Author page or website www.annbennettauthor.com for more details about my books
| Author Bio – Ann Bennett |
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 Ann Bennett writes historical fiction mainly set during the Second World War. Her first book, Bamboo Heart: A Daughter's Quest, was inspired by researching her father's experience as a prisoner of war on the Thai-Burma Railway and by her own journey to uncover his story. It won the Asian Books Blog prize for fiction published in Asia in 2015 and was shortlisted for the best fiction title in the Singapore Book Awards 2016. That initial inspiration led her to write more books about WWII in Southeast Asia - Bamboo Island: The Planter's Wife, A Daughter's Promise, Bamboo Road: The Homecoming, The Tea Planter's Club, The Amulet and The Lotus House, make up the Echoes of Empire Collection. These were followed by two books set in Nepal, The Fortune Teller of Kathmandu and The Bookseller of Kathmandu (published September 2025) make up the Tales of Kathmandu. A further book in this series is planned for early 2027. Ann is also the author of The Oriental Lake Collection - The Lake Pavilion and The Lake Palace, both set in British India during the 1930s and WWII, and The Lake Pagoda and The Lake Villa, set in French Indochina. The Runaway Sisters, USA Today bestselling The Orphan House, The Child Without a Home and The Forgotten Children are set in Europe during the same era. Those books are published by Bookouture along with The Orphan List and The Stolen Sisters, a two-book series focusing on the Lebensborn programme in Nazi Germany. Her latest book, Once We Were Sisters, a standalone story set in France during WW2 was published by Bookouture in January 2026. Ann is married with three grown up sons and a granddaughter and lives in Surrey, UK. For more details, please visit her website www.annbennettauthor.com |
| Social Media Links – | |
| Web site | www.annbennettauthor.com |
| https://www.instagram.com/annbennettauthor/ | |
| Facebook Author Page | Ann Bennett Author |
| X | @annbennett71 |
*Terms and Conditions –UK & Europe entries welcome. Please enter using the Gleam box below. The winner will be selected at random via Gleam from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.
Win a paperback copy of The Bookseller of Kathmandu by Ann Bennett (Open to UK & Europe Only)
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