The Nam Legacy

Carole Brungar Publishing, 2017. Inscription from author on front endpaper, good secondhand copy.

2017 Winner of the International Hooker Competition for Best Opening Chapter -The Nam Legacy is an epic love story set during the 60's and 70's. When the Rolling Stones and Jefferson Airplane drove parents crazy, teenagers found sexual freedom and peace slogans covered placards. When the Vietnam War abducted the nation's young men and sent them to fight in New Zealand's most controversial campaign. After eighteen months in Vietnam, New Zealand soldier Jack Coles thought killing others to stay alive would be the hardest thing he would ever have to live with. He was wrong. Although the nightmare of what he saw and did haunt him constantly, what tortures him the most is what he has left behind. 'Not everyone who lost his life in Vietnam died there, not everyone who came home from Vietnam ever left there.'