It’s 1968 and the world is on fire. The Vietnam War is at its deadliest, protests rage across the globe, and in Bangkok, Thailand, a young American woman falls for a disillusioned GI and has her world turned upside down with consequences that echo far into the future.
“One of those rare adventures worth taking”
-Kathryn Johnson, bestselling author of The Gentleman Poet
“Daria Sommers’s stunning historical coming-of-age novel offers an unexpected take on the US presence in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War as seen through the eyes of Piper, an American diplomat’s daughter, thrust into a world unlike any she has ever known. A complete page turner, Sawadika American Girl stayed with me long after I read its heartbreaking final chapter.”
—John Fried, author of The Martin Chronicles
Praise
“Sawadika American Girl is the kind of novel that sneaks up on you. It looks, at first glance like a period romance, but it reads like a memory: humid, specific, and quietly dangerous.”
—BookBelow
“With elegant, uncluttered prose, every breathtaking sentence brings Bangkok to life. In an era scarred by the Vietnam War, Sommers somehow makes room for tenderness…and the surprising ways love redefines everything we think we know.”
-Indies Today
“An American teen living in Bangkok, Piper is every young woman who sees too much, questions the status quo, and falls in love. Set in 1960s Thailand, Piper and Jack’s love affair will linger with readers for years; everyone will recall their own special person, that first soulmate who touched their heart.”
—Marcia Bradley, author of The Home for Wayward Girls
“When Sommers transports her heroine halfway around the world, she sweeps her readers along with her. Sawadika American Girl is one of those rare adventures worth taking!”
—Kathryn Johnson, bestselling author of The Gentleman Poet and The Death of a Maven
“Evocative, immersive and beautifully written, Sawadika American Girl is a fresh, soulful take on our tragic involvement in Southeast Asia.”
—Catherine Filloux, award-winning playwright and librettist of Where Elephants Weep
“Sommers is especially good at showing how history filters into ordinary rooms…The war isn’t just background scenery. It shapes where people live, what they believe, who they can love and what they’re able to admit.”
-Literary Titan
About the Author
Daria Sommers is a writer and filmmaker who grew up in Bangkok, Thailand. A graduate of Oberlin College, she has received grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Sundance Institute, and has been awarded fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her essays, op-eds and reviews have been widely published including the Ginosko Literary Journal, Woman Around Town, Art New England and The New York Times. Daria is currently the Managing Editor of VBC Magazine.
A Novel by Daria Sommers
In 1968 Bangkok, Thailand, 17-year-old Piper Lewis’ world is changing in unsettling ways. The U.S. Military’s expansion into Thailand in support of the Vietnam War is reshaping the city she loves. Her USAID Official father’s mysterious absences fray their once-close relationship. Her stepmother’s obsession with appearances suffocates her. Worse, she can’t summon the passion to bring Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata to life. Only her beloved piano teacher, a Thai Prince, senses the depth of her disconnect.
One night, Piper ditches the American Teen Club to party with an older crowd. Sparks fly when she meets Jack, a 19-year-old GI on R&R from Vietnam. Defying the Army’s non-fraternization policy, they pledge to spend his leave together. As the hypocrisy of the war closes in on them, Jack’s name surfaces in a drug investigation and Piper discovers a disturbing truth about her father, forcing both to decide what they are willing to risk for a few more days together.
Sawadika American Girl is the story of a young American woman coming of age on the periphery of a brutal, unjust war.
