As an "Observer" correspondent in Vietnam before the American withdrawal in 1975, Gavin Young met many courageous Vietnamese people. He frequently stayed with one such person, Madame Bong, a woman who had lost her husband when she was only twenty-five, had recovered the mangled limbs of one son from a battlefield and watched as another son was sent off to a 're-education camp' for seven years. When Young was allowed to return to Vietnam he helped many of Madame Bong's relatives emigrate to the US.
"A Wavering Grace" is a personal account of how one ordinary family survived the horrors of war and a political process that was beyond their control. 'By far ...the most moving account of Vietnam to be written in recent years' - Norman Lewis. 'This delicate, terrible and enchanting book ...brings the atmosphere of Vietnam so near that you can almost taste and smell it' - Jonathan Mirsky, "The Times".
'Full of passion and feeling ..."A Wavering Grace" could be described as a love story and tells the story of Vietnam and Mme Bong's family in its many conflicting complexions' - Andrew Barrow, "Spectator".