Land mines within
THE ORPHANED TEENAGERS AT THE CENTER OF Paul Yoon’s latest novel like to fantasize about traveling to far-off places at night. They go to Paris or the moon. One visits a “very large” ship. As their days dip into darkness, 17-year-olds Prany and Alisak and 16-year-old Noi, Prany’s sister, imagine that they are anywhere other than the bombed-out makeshift hospital where they sleep each evening.
In the group of childhood friends assists a doctor by transporting supplies across 1960s Laos, where bombs rain down, leaving many injured or dead. But when they return from their trips, the three watch the stars through a slit in the ceiling and dream of all the places
