Books & Films About Vietnam

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We recommend watching a film or two before you travel to set the scene, and taking a book to read whilst you travel, to enhance your understanding and enjoyment of Vietnam.

Here is a list of books, films and TV programmes which we have found both informative and entertaining.

Books
Ten Years After: Vietnam Today by Tim Page
Derailed in Uncle Ho's Victory Garden by Tim Page (memoir)
Vietnam Inc by Philip Jones Griffiths
Shadows and Wind by Robert Templer
The Quiet American by Graham Greene (novel)
Vietnam: A Traveller's Literary Companion ed. by John Balaban & Nguyen Qui Doc
Hitchhiking Vietnam by Karin Muller (memoir)
The sorrow of War: A Novel by Bao Ninh (novel)
Vietnam: A History by Stanley Karnow
Unquiet Vietnam: A Journey to the Vanishing World of Indochina by Kenneth Murphy
The Beauty of the Humanity Movement by Camilla Gibb (novel)
‘Catfish & Mandala': A Vietnamese Odyssey by Andrew X Pham (memoir)
Wandering Through Vietnamese Culture by Huu Ngoc
Vietnam: Rising Dragon by Bill Hayton
Vietnam: Journeys of Body, Mind & Spirit ed. by Van Huy Nguyen
Vietnam Today: A Guide to a Nation at a Crossroads by Mark Ashwill and Thai Ngoc Diep
River of Time: A Memoir of Vietnam & Cambodia by Jon Swain
Vietnam Now, A Reporter Returns by David Lamb
• A Dragon Apparent: Travels in Cambodia, Laos & Vietnam by Norman Lewis

Films
Apocalypse Now (Film, 1979)
The Deer Hunter (Film, 1978)
Indochine (Film, 1978)
Heaven & Earth (Film, 1993)
The Scent of Green Papaya (Vietnamese Film, 1993)
Cyclo (Vietnamese Film, 1995)
The Quiet American (Film, 2002)
The Owl and the Sparrow (Film, 2004)
The Buffalo Boy (Vietnamese Film, 2004)
Journey from the Fall (Vietnamese Film, 2007)
Oh Saigon (Vietnamese Film, 2007)

TV
Top Gear Vietnam Special (BBC, 2008)
The Coffee Trail with Simon Reeve (BBC Documentary, 2014)