Michael P. Maurer

When a teenage boy sets out to prove his bravery, he becomes trapped in an ordeal of survival and ignites a struggle with darkness from which he might never escape. In Perfume River Nights, eighteen-year-old Jimmy Miller, called Singer by his platoon mates, wants to confirm his courage in the trials of war, but he never considered how hard it would be to kill a man or what might happen if he did. He doesn’t think about death and dying. He only imagines the glory. But when a vicious North Vietnamese Army ambush engulfs Singer and his friends, everything changes. In the heat of battle, Singer confronts the terrible truth of war and discovers a frightening darkness within himself. His struggle to survive takes on a deeper meaning that tests his courage in ways he never expected. More than a war story, Perfume River Nights is a tale of tragic events and the heroic quest to know ourselves and find our way.