Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam [Paperback]

Winner of the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize
ANew York TimesNotable Book of the Year
Winner of the Whiting Writers' Award
ASeattle Post-IntelligencerBest Book of the Year

Catfish and Mandalais the story of an American odysseya solo bicycle voyage around the Pacific Rim to Vietnammade by a young Vietnamese-American man in pursuit of both his adopted homeland and his forsaken fatherland. Intertwined with an often humorous travelogue spanning a year of discovery is a memoir of war, escape, and ultimately, family secrets.

Andrew X. Pham was born in Vietnam and raised in California. His father had been a POW of the Vietcong; his family came to America as boat people. Following the suicide of his sister, Pham quit his job, sold all of his possessions, and embarked on a year-long bicycle journey that took him through the Mexican desert; on a thousand-mile loop from Narita in South Korea to Kyoto in Japan; and, after five months and 2,357 miles, to Saigon, where he finds nothing familiar in the bombed-out darkness. In Vietnam, he's taken for Japanese or Korean by his countrymen, except, of course, by his relatives, who doubt that as a Vietnamese he has the stamina to complete his journey ( Only Westerners can do it ); and in the United States he's considered anything but American.

A vibrant, picaresque memoir written with narrative flair and an eye-opening sense of adventure,Catfish and Mandalais an unforgettable search for cultural identity.

Andrew X. Phamwas born in Vietnam in 1967 and moved to California with his family after the war.Catfish and Mandalawas the winner of the 1999 Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize. Mr. Pham lives in Portland, Oregon

Thoreau, Theroux, Kerouac, Steinbeck, Mark Twain and William Least Heat-Moon--the roster of those who have turned to their travels for inspiration includes some of America's most noted scribes. Now add Andrlc$