March 15, 2019
Review by Nancy Oakes 
Not too long ago (and borrowing from Rodgers and Hammerstein), I was that girl who cain’t say no. As a result, I had tons of books to read from Netgalley, from various publishers, and from people who organized book tours for various bloggers. At first it was great and there were books arriving at my door on a daily basis. But there was also a downside—I started noticing that I had little time for the books I’d been buying that were starting to seriously pile up. So with a few exceptions, I quit accepting offers and got back to my own tomes which had been sadly neglected, and became a much happier person. But I will always make time when asked if I would like to read a novel by indie author Khanh Ha, who has been the recipient of several awards for his fiction. Mrs. Rossi’s Dream is his third novel, and in my opinion, the best he’s written.
Once again, the author takes us into the vivid but harrowing landscapes of Vietnam. The Lower U Minh National Reserve in the Mekong Delta is teeming with life, but at the same time it is also a place of death. During the years of the Vietnam War, as we are reminded, it was the “territory of IV Corps,” but it was also home to North Vietnamese forces and the Vietnamese civilians who lived there. Heavy casualties on all sides were suffered in the area, where all too often the bodies were not recovered -- in this place, “The dead remain where they died.”
