The headmaster's wager
Compulsive gambler and womanizer Percival Chen is the headmaster of the most respected English school in Saigon and fiercely proud of his Chinese heritage. Percival is accustomed to bribing government officials, but he faces the limits of his connections and wealth when his son gets into trouble with the Vietnamese authorities and Percival is forced to send him away. He finds solace in a new lover and the son they have together, but his newfound happiness is affected by the war that is encroaching into his world.
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Stamford | Available |
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Subject |
School principals > Fiction. Chinese > Vietnam > Fiction. Fathers and sons > Fiction. Gambling > Fiction. Vietnam War, 1961-1975 > Fiction. Vietnam > History > 1945-1975 > Fiction. |
Genre |
Historical fiction. Fiction. |
- ISBN: 0385661452
- ISBN: 9780385661454
-
Physical Description
print
393 pages - Publisher [Toronto] : Doubleday Canada, [2012]
- Copyright ©2012
Content descriptions
Immediate Source of Acquisition Note: | LSC 32.95 |
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The Headmaster's Wager
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Summary
The Headmaster's Wager
From Giller Prize winner, internationally acclaimed, and bestselling author Vincent Lam comes a superbly crafted, highly suspenseful, and deeply affecting novel set against the turmoil of the Vietnam War. Â Percival Chen is the headmaster of the most respected English school in Saigon. He is also a bon vivant , a compulsive gambler and an incorrigible womanizer. He is well accustomed to bribing a forever-changing list of government officials in order to maintain the elite status of the Chen Academy. He is fiercely proud of his Chinese heritage, and quick to spot the business opportunities rife in a divided country. He devotedly ignores all news of the fighting that swirls around him, choosing instead to read the faces of his opponents at high-stakes mahjong tables. But when his only son gets in trouble with the Vietnamese authorities, Percival faces the limits of his connections and wealth and is forced to send him away. In the loneliness that follows, Percival finds solace in Jacqueline, a beautiful woman of mixed French and Vietnamese heritage, and Laing Jai, a son born to them on the eve of the Tet offensive. Percival's new-found happiness is precarious, and as the complexities of war encroach further and further into his world, he must confront the tragedy of all he has refused to see. Â Blessed with intriguingly flawed characters moving through a richly drawn historical and physical landscape, The Headmaster's Wager is a riveting story of love, betrayal and sacrifice.