In Country: A Novel - Softcover

Seventeen-year-old Sam Hughes lives in a small town in Kentucky. Her father was killed in Vietnam and her gentle, traumatized Uncle Emmett is suffering with her from delayed acne or the effects of the dreaded Agent Orange.

Sam's growing awareness of the reality of the war, of the scars and the guilt, becomes an obsession when she falls in love with Tom at a Veteran's dance. Through her father's letters home and the journal he kept 'in country', Sam begins a journey of exploration that takes her across America and helps her to come to terms with the past.

"I am still under the spell of 'In Country'. It really is a wonderful experience, starting right on the first page."
ANNE TYLER

"Brilliantly assured... an eloquent and moving statement about the bigotry, paranoia and eccentricity of small-town America, infused with perfectly judged levels of sympathy, humour and shrewdness. Exceptional."
TIME OUT

"Bobbie Ann Mason's theme is an explosive one. A courageous and poignant novel."
LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS

"'In Country' is a very funny book. Bobbie Ann Mason has an unerring ear for dialogue and a quick eye for the small, foolish detail that makes her characters completely real."
DAILY TELEGRAPH

"An exceptional achievement, at once humane and moving... sharp and brilliant."
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

Bobbie Ann Mason was born in 1940 and brought up on a farm in western Kentucky. She now lives in rural Pennsylvania. Her first collection of fiction, ‘Shiloh and Other Stories’, was awarded a Hemmingway prize. ‘In Country’, her first novel, was made into a major film in 1989.