The Headmaster’s Wager by Vincent Lam is a great page turner. The story of Percival Chen, an expatriate Chinese, the headmaster of the best English academy in Viet Name, is fascinating. The protagonist is well developed with many characteristics, a dutiful son and loving father, an educator who believes in fate and worships ancestral spirits, and a lucky gambler. The plot intrigues the reader. Percival’s life is full of dramatic moments: a student in Hong Kong flees the Sino-Japanese war to Vietnam with his newlywed wife; an expat wants to return to China, but never gets a chance; a risk taker saves his son arrested by the “quite” police; as a target of the Viet Cong, the headmaster narrowly escapes from being murdered because of the birth of his son/grandson; he loves Jacqueline, a métisse, but can’t marry her; he eagerly has his teenaged son smuggler into China at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution to avoid him from being enlisted in the Southern Vietnamese army, but wants him to return home badly. His loyal friend has to torture him in order to help him. A lot of suspense and surprises are built in the storyline and makes the reader want to know: Does his son return from China? Can Jacqueline and her son flee the Viet Gong’s takeover? Percival’s refusal of learning the Vietnamese language and teaching the language in his school after living in Vietnam for a long time rings true sadly. The novel covers the Vietnam War era, but from an inside angle. Percival’s life is damaged by the Viet Cong and has to find a way out of there. The open ending does not only gives the reader room to imagine, but also hints for another interesting novel.:-) I’m looking forward to it.

An epic story of a Chinese man, the headmaster of an English school in Vietnam during the Vietnam war. A fascinating and horrifying snapshot of the life of a civilian in those years of war and turmoil, a man who is himself an immigrant in a country occupied by Americans. A complex love story, a heart-rending family saga ... all told in spare, perfect prose. Compelling: I lost sleep reading this novel. Highly, highly, highly recommended.

Vincent won the Giller prize over 5 years ago, and this accomplished novel shows he has been busy. Rich in atmosphere and character plus you learn about a country that is fascinating . Definitely worth the wait.

Story Description: Doubleday Canada | April 24, 2012 | Hardcover|ISBN 978-0-385-66145-4 Percival Chen is the Headmaster of the most respected English school in Saigon. He is also a bon vivant, a compulsive gambler, and an incorrigible womanizer. He is well accustomed to bribing a forever-changing list of government officials in order to maintain the elite status of the Percival Chen English Academy. Fiercely proud of his Chinese heritage, he is quick to spot the business opportunities rife in a divided country. He devotedly ignores all news of the fighting that swirls around him choosing instead to read the faces of his opponents at high-stakes mah-jong tables. But when his son, Dai Jai, get into trouble with the Vietnamese authorities, Percival must face the limits of his connections and wealth, and is forced to send him away. In the loneliness that follows, Percival finds solace in Jacqueline, a beautiful woman of mixed French and Vietnamese heritage, and Laing Jai, a son born to them on the verge of the Tet Offensive. Percival’s newfound happiness is precarious, and as the complexities of war encroach further and further into this world he must confront the tragedy of all he has refused to see. Blessed with intriguingly flawed characters moving through a richly drawn historical and physical landscape, The Headmaster’s Wager is a riveting story of love, betrayal, and sacrifice. My Review: Vincent Lam’s novel The Headmaster’s Wager seemed to be a bit slow and I had a hard time keeping my mind from wondering off and thinking of other things, then would have to come back and re-read the paragraph. However, the story did seem to pick-up somewhat after he meets Jacqueline and has a son with her and a surprise I never expected. All in all, I could easily have given this book a pass.

Vincent Lam's novel, The Headmaster's Wager, is like a painting. The beginning starts off, not exactly slowly, but as a base coat, layering the story with details that will become more important as the narrative builds, until the end result is a piece of art that is complex and compelling, a masterpiece in every sense. The novel follows the life of Percival Chen, Chinese headmaster of an English school in South Vietnam in the years before and after the Vietnam war. All around him is turmoil, conflicting forces of colonization, Communism, nationalism, invasion and resistance. Every move he makes is carefully watched by all around him, yet he convinces himself he can remain untouched by all of it by remaining apolitical, focused solely on business and on family, and sometimes by being wilfully ignorant. It is a wager he makes on a daily basis, that greasing all the right palms with lucky red envelopes of bribe money will save him and his family from the perils of being a foreigner in a rapidly changing Vietnam. He is a man who is not afraid of a wager, routinely gambling away his fortune at high stakes mah-jong tables. But when his son's antics attract the attention of the so-called "quiet police" Headmaster Chen finds himself caught in a series of circumstances that will lead him to a high stakes gamble that will alter the course of his life. This novel is genius. If you told me that it was the tenth novel of a highly respected, award winning novelist I would believe it. It reminds me of the work of Amy Tan, not just because it is written by a North American writer about Chinese history, but because the level of craftsmanship and storytelling is so high. And this guy is a doctor. A real, medical doctor. He's already very good at something amazing. He can write too? It's not like finding out that some mediocre actor also has a mediocre rock band. It's like finding out that Geena Davis is a member of Mensa and almost made the U.S. Olympic team for archery. What the what--?!? When I read Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures I was impressed (blown away actually) by Vincent Lam's skill as a fiction writer, but I figured since it was a collection of stories about being a medical student and a doctor in Canada, maybe it wasn't so much of a stretch. The Headmaster's Wager, on the other hand, is in a whole different league. It's absolute genius. Oh, and his other credits include writing something called The Flu Pandemic and You, for which he won an award from the American Medical Writers Association, and a biography of Canadian hero Tommy Douglas. At this rate, I'm almost afraid Vincent Lam won't have another novel, since maybe he feels he's mastered that now and will be moving on to, say, children's books or cookbooks (both of which I would buy, by the way). One thing is for certain. If you ever meet Vincent Lam, you should probably ask him to build you some furniture or teach you sign language or something. Even if he's never done it before, odds are he's a genius at that too. For more reviews, please visit my blog, CozyLittleBookJournal. Disclaimer: I received a digital galley of this book free from the publisher from NetGalley. I was not obliged to write a favourable review, or even any review at all. The opinions expressed are strictly my own.