Cameraman Brendan Leary survived the ambush of the Big Buddha Bicycle Race—but Tukada, his star-crossed lover, did not. Leary returns to combat, flying night operations over the mountains of Laos, too numb to notice that Pawnsiri, one of his adult-school students, is courting him. When his gunship is shot down, he survives again, hiking out of the jungle with Harley Baker, the guitar-playing door gunner he loves and hates. Leary is discharged but remains in Thailand, ordaining as a Buddhist monk and embarking on a pilgrimage through the wastelands of Laos, haunted by what Thais call pii tai hong—the restless, unhappy ghosts of his doomed crewmates.
In the Year of the Rabbit, a story of healing and redemption, honors three groups missing from accounts of the Vietnam War—the air commandos who risked death flying night after night over the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the active-duty airmen who risked prison by joining the GI antiwar movement, and the people of neutral Laos, whose lives and country were devastated.
About the AuthorTerence A. Harkin was awarded the 2020 Silver Medal in Literary Fiction from the Military Writers Society of America for his debut novel, The Big Buddha Bicycle Race. During the Vietnam War he served with the “Rat Pack,” the USAF photo unit operating out of Ubon, Thailand, before going on to a long career as a Hollywood cameraman (M*A*S*H, From Here to Eternity, Seinfeld). He has returned often to Thailand and Laos.
What others are saying
“Terence Harkin’s novel brings the reader into the hidden world of Buddhist monastic life with such skill that you get to live it….The wisdom, kindness, and compassion of the Thai forest monks permeate this book, as does the healing power of meditation.” —Jason Siff, author of Unlearning Meditation and Seeking Nibbana in Sri Lanka.
“In the Year of the Rabbit captures the soul of an American Combat Cameraman…whose life is overtaken by the most controversial war in America’s history. Must reading.” —Colonel Frank A. Titus (USAF, ret.), former Instructor of International Humanitarian Law with the United Nations-New York
“In the Year of the Rabbit deftly manages to deal with a number of disparate issues with power and precision….An odyssey involving the brutal violence of conflict, the pain and guilt of lost love, and the tranquility of life as lived by a Buddhist monk. Highly recommended.” —Dean Barrett, author of Memoir of a Bangkok Warrior and Kingdom of Make Believe
