A sexy, soulful story about love, loss
and learning to live again.
The Rainy Season
Ella arrives in Saigon as a single girl on a trip meant for two. Abandoned by her adored boyfriend and haunted by the mystery of her absent Vietnam veteran father, she loses herself in coconut rum and easy ex-pat friends.
Sharing fractured pasts and uncertain futures, Ella begins to feel at home in a landscape scarred by war and betrayal. Hope is gradually returning to Vietnam. Hearts and minds are opening, and Ella finds herself falling in love with handsome French photographer Ariel. But will the heavy tropical rains be enough to wash away the ghosts of the past?
Shortlisted for the 2009 Melbourne Prize for Literature Best Writing Award for a work of 'outstanding clarity, originality and creativity by a Victorian writer, 40 years or under'.
“Jones, who worked in Saigon in the 1990s, brings Saigon to life: the urban chaos, the stench and grime of poverty, the sickening humidity. The prose is quick and light; The Rainy Season is a diverting read... moving for its earnestness and emotional authenticity.”
“The Rainy Season charts the most delicate shifts in pressure - of the heart, of the weather, of a city - a superbly atmospheric and deeply empathetic novel.”
“Beautiful in its evocation of the bright colours and alien smells of a new country, and pleasingly dark in its depiction of the aftershocks of abandonment and war... Jones tells a good story well, and The Rainy Season is effective and affecting.”