{"product_id":"andrew-pham-catfish-and-mandala-2000","title":"Andrew Pham: Catfish and Mandala [2000]","description":"Vietnamese-born Andrew Pham finally returns to Saigon, not as a success showering money and gifts onto his family, but as an emotional shipwreck, desperate to find out who he really is. When his sister, a post-operative transsexual, committed suicide, Pham sold all his possessions and embarked on a year-long bicycle journey that took him through the Mexican desert; around a thousand-mile loop from Narita to Kyoto in Japan; and, after five months and 2,357 miles, to Saigon, where he finds \"nothing familiar in the bombed-out darkness\". At first meant to facilitate forgetfulness, Pham's travels turn into an unforgettable, eye-opening search for cultural identity which flashes back to his parent's courtship in Vietnam, his father's imprisonment by the Vietcong, and his family's nail-bitingly narrow escape as \"boat people\". Lucid, witty and beautifully written, This text evokes a Vietnam you can almost smell and taste, laying bare the psyche of a troubled hero whose search for home and identity becomes our own.","brand":"Pham, Andrew","offers":[{"title":"Very Good","offer_id":54335044649299,"sku":"XV80002571845","price":6.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0616\/4001\/6057\/files\/pham-andrew-andrew-pham-catfish-and-mandala-2000-xv80002571845-1249441403.jpg?v=1784292700","url":"https:\/\/chaptersbookstore.com\/products\/andrew-pham-catfish-and-mandala-2000","provider":"Chapters Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}