Author Description

The book depicts Samantha's (Sam) and Sarah's adventures from Wisconsin to Beirut to Marrakesh and those of Jimmy, Sarah's brother, from California to Paris, to combat in Vietnam. This coming of age novel explores class, culture, and love among young men and women during heady days of cultural unrest and political conflict against a background of sex, drugs, and rock and roll during the turbulent Sixties. One heroine, Sam, is an introverted country girl from the backward American West who becomes Sarah's best friend after a double college date. Sarah, the other heroine, is a free-loving and budding feminist searching for adventure, love, and meaning. While in the Peace Legion, Sam and Sarah become unintentionally involved in North Africa intrigues during the Seven Day War between Arabs and Israelis. The hero of the novel, Jimmy, Sarah's brother, who joined the army instead of waiting to be drafted, becomes an intelligence officer on various undercover assignments in Vietnam and Thailand during the American War. In Vietnam, he encounters the Viet Cong, Buddhist protesters, and black marketeers. In Thailand, undercover, to protect Peace Legion volunteers, he meets a Legionnaire, who works as a nurse to promote peace and goodwill in a land embroiled as an American ally in the Vietnam War. This tour de force of war and peace in the global village is a must-read for book lovers everywhere.