BANGKOK, Thailand, Jan. 16, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- In the midst of secret battles in Laos during the Vietnam War, Jim Phillips, a young American Air Force pilot, finds himself engulfed in the mystery and beauty of Thailand. In a new novel by Christian Weiss, Orphan Clouds (now available through 1stBooks), this character finds love after war leaves him at his lowest point.
Jim volunteers in 1968 to fight in the Vietnam conflict, a decision he comes to regret. He opts to fight in a secret war in Laos that is headed by the CIA. He spends 18 thrilling months in this covert operation, trying to decipher enemy loyalists from mercenaries and drug traffickers. He loses his leg in a plane crash. Knowing that disabled veterans are a painful reminder in the United States of an unpopular war, he decides to submerge himself in Thailand, where he can indulge in alcohol and prostitutes
When he meets Yang Bee, everything changes. This young Hmong girl tragically loses her family members one by one. She becomes disabled because of the fighting and is assigned to a refugee camp.
These two fleeting souls intertwine. Yang pulls Jim from his addiction to alcohol and yearns to take him to her village nestled at the top of a Laotian mountain above the clouds. Will these two people, scarred by war, be able to escape to the mountains? Weiss weaves a vivid story of the brutality of the Vietnam conflict and the comfort of finding love in Orphan Clouds.
Weiss has lived in Southeast Asia since the 1980s. He is a software engineer and a private pilot. He is fascinated by the tradition of this country's people, but astonished at "the secret war of Laos." His story is based on actual events that occurred in Laos and northern Thailand.
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