{"product_id":"9780002571845-secondhand-catfish-and-mandala","title":"Catfish and Mandala","description":"Vietnamese-born Andrew Pham finally returns to Saigon, not as a success showering money and gifts onto his family, but as an emotional shipwreck, desperate to find out who he really is. When his sister, a post-operative transsexual, committed suicide, Pham sold all his possessions and embarked on a year-long bicycle journey that took him through the Mexican desert; around a thousand-mile loop from Narita to Kyoto in Japan; and, after five months and 2,357 miles, to Saigon, where he finds \"nothing familiar in the bombed-out darkness\". At first meant to facilitate forgetfulness, Pham's travels turn into an unforgettable, eye-opening search for cultural identity which flashes back to his parent's courtship in Vietnam, his father's imprisonment by the Vietcong, and his family's nail-bitingly narrow escape as \"boat people\". Lucid, witty and beautifully written, This text evokes a Vietnam you can almost smell and taste, laying bare the psyche of a troubled hero whose search for home and identity becomes our own.","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49223401177307,"sku":"9780002571845-SECONDHAND","price":12.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/04a6819e-e0ee-4156-93e0-6e74c1d99d15.jpg?v=1788528906","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/9780002571845-secondhand-catfish-and-mandala","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}