United by wars against the United States, yet divided by the economic results and effects of those wars, Vietnam and Japan are the real subjects of Aska Mochizuki's Knopf Kodansha Prize-winning novel "Spinning Tropics."
Set in Ho Chih Minh City, the narrative concerns the complications of a woman-woman-man love affair underscored by detailed observations of Vietnamese life, politics and culture.
Tokyoite Hiro Azuma, in her 20s, working in Vietnam as a Japanese- language teacher, meets Yun, a beautiful, uncompromising, outgoing and ambitious young Vietnamese woman with a desire to learn Japanese in order to economically assist her family. Neither is quite ready for the love that emerges between them.