Over the Moat: Love Among the Ruins of Imperial Vietnam

“Cultures clash but love conquers with some fascinating twists and plenty of intimate details.” ―Kirkus Reviews. James Sullivans Over the Moat details his travels in Vietnam to bicycle from Saigon to Hanoi. He has just finished graduate school and has an assignment to write a magazine story about a country that is still subject to a U.S. trade embargo. But in Hue the old imperial capital of Vietnam the planned three-month bike trip in the fall of 1992 takes a detour. . Here in a city spliced by the famed Perfume River and filled with French baroque villas he finds himself bicycling over a moat to visit a beautiful shop girl who lives amid the ruins of the last imperial dynasty of Vietnam. She falls for him but theres a catch. Several other suitors are vying for her hand and one of them is an official with the citys police force. Over the Moat is the story of Sullivans efforts to win Thuys favor while immersing himself in Vietnamese culture of kindly insinuating himself in Thuys colorful and warm family and of learning how to create a common language based on love and understanding.