War
I did not expect to write a novel about the Vietnam War. During the war, I did not know anyone who went to Vietnam. No personal loss or connection motivated the writing of In Country. The story grew out of a group of characters who came into my mind and danced around aimlessly for well over a year before I got a sense of their direction. Then I realized that Sam, a young girl of seventeen, is coming of age, and she would naturally ask questions about her missing father. As soon as it occurred to me that her father must have died in Vietnam, I knew I had a novel and that it had a universal theme. Although I was reluctant at first to write about war, I soon realized that war wasn’t only battle. It was also the shattering effects on the people at home.
—BAM