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Submitted by ctv_en_3 on Fri, 11/02/2007 - 14:45
Gael Harrison’s book “The Moon in the Banyan Tree” is a must-read for all people who come to live and work in Vietnam, who learn to love the country’s diversity and strength in spite of early experiences of culture shock and loneliness.

It is Gael’s personal story of her time as a British VSO volunteer, training early childhood teachers in remote ethnic communities in the northern provinces of Vietnam, based in Tien Yen.

 

Gael tells of the difficulties faced by a newcomer to the customs and culture of the country - the noise and traffic of Hanoi, followed by the isolation, loneliness and beauty of remote regions, the friendships forged over Karaoke and cha cha despite language constraints, impassable roads and rivers and unforgiving extremes of weather.

 

The title recalls the view from her window when she stayed in Hang Bai in the old quarter of Hanoi, and the book gives many evocative glimpses of the moon and the natural landscape as she travels through remote, misty mountains, takes in the spectacular sentinels of Ha Long Bay or hunts for snails in the pitch black night with her local colleagues.

 

There is the sadness of the fate of Mr Darcy, the fun of the ladies fitness group, the smiles and progress of the children through stories, art and plasticene, the romance of the “hugging bike” rides through mud and coal dust as the reader rides the roller coaster that is living in a foreign country.

 

Throughout the story threads the sewing and construction of a silk quilt, with hexagonal patches of the greens of rice paddies and the jungle. The quilt is finished in Hanoi at the end of her stay. 

 

Since the book’s publication Gael has finished a second book, a novel set in Malaysia called “The Great Flying Trapeze Act” and is currently living in Hanoi with her husband, John, an engineer, while she works on her third book, set in a small village in the Scottish highlands.

 

As relief for the discipline of daily writing, Gael is rehearsing the role of Sheila in the Hanoi International Theatre Society’s production of “Relatively Speaking,” an Alan Ayckbourne play directed by Dung, which will hit the stage in Hanoi on December 7.

 

“The Moon in the Banyan Tree” can be bought at www.amazon.com

Pam Ellis

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